I’m waiting here at LaGuardia Airport at 5 in the morning, waiting for my flight to Las Vegas. P- just touched down about an hour ago in Los Angeles with a crucial transplant shipment, and then is going to make the 4 hour drive to be reunited with me sometime tonight. I’m here for a conference and just for some down time.
Author: F C
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Seattle recap
This is a food recap for my trip last week to Seattle for a tech conference. Many of the sessions were very long-term career oriented, reflecting upon the fact that many that started in the 70’s PC era are now on their way to retirement. Food for thought.
Elephant & Castle: Originally an English pub chain now spreading in the US, this was the local bar in my hotel that was the default hangout when things didn’t exactly work out. Food was pretty authentic, and many beers on tap. They also have 2 happy hours daily!Pike Place Market: Lowell’s – excellent views of the waterfront, and an excellent Dungeness crab cocktail at a good price. Recommended. Original Starbucks: must visit for the Pike Place Blend (apparently now available by mail order). Pike Place Fish Market – King Strips (salmon belly jerky) is my favorite, but their traditional cuts of smoked salmon are of course fantastic. Recommended
Costco: this warehouse store has become a destination on all of my domestic trips. I had previously mentioned my experiences on my Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas excursions. First, they have the cheapest gas ($2.75 vs the regional average of $3.08 per gallon). Second, it is always an economical place to purchase regional souvenirs. Third, they always have suitable clothing for the environment (it dropped down to 30 degrees, and I picked up some high-tech thermal underwear). Fourth, the vast majority of the people shopping at Costco are locals, so you get to see what they are like. The thing that made this special was that Seattle is home to Costco’s original warehouse #1. They have a small historical timeline against a portion of the original wall (they had expanded their building) When I leave home, I bring my Costco card with me.
Marrakesh Morrocan restaurant: great food for groups. Decor makes you believe that you are in a bedouin tent. The 5 course set menu is the best value. Recommended.
Convention special event was at the Boeing Museum of Flight, where we got to check out the original hangar, and see a wide array of air and space craft. Can’t wait to fly a 787 Dreamliner. The catering was excellent – must have had a dozen mini crab cakes!
Crab Pot: Last time we feasted here on seafood. This time I came alone for my classic Dungeness crab after driving to and from Hood River in the Columbia River Valley (beautiful scenery) and Portland, which was 4 hours each way. The server was a former mortgage broker and night club owner. He had mentioned how Seattle has grown and become even more congested in the last few years. While people in the northwest are far more ecologically conscious than most, the traffic jams and suburban sprawl are becoming a serious problem for future growth and sustainability.
Before the drive down to Portland, I made a stop at Rick Steves’ headquarters north of Seattle. It is literally a one-stop shop if you are considering a Europe trip. Every known guide book is available for free reading in their library, as well as a complete set of Steeves’ videos in a separate room. If you know your itinerary, you can purchase Europasses there, as well as a complete line of travel gear. Good to check out if you are in the area.
Three big races this weekend: NYC Marathon (Sunday), US Olympic Marathon Trials (the day before on the original NYC Marathon course, 5+ laps around Central Park). Amazing Race 12 begins this Sunday at 8 PM EST (remember to fall back 1 hour Sunday morning). Look out for Ronald and Christine, a Chinese-American father and daughter team.
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Disappointing Weekend eating, immersive weekday conferencing
Wow, what a weekend of eating strikeouts!
U-choose noodle shop: new $1. Per item on soup noodles store on Mott Street replacing the long vacant Hop Kee. location. Good side: restored the historic Loonie’s Coffee Shop sign. Downside: by the time you get through the loine, you’ve picked up $9 of toppings. While they have 6 different types of noodle, they don’t have wontons., and the stock is made from food service stock paste concentrate. Eh
Coco Roco, 5th Ave Brooklyn: we really wanted to like this place as we had sampled their ceveche during the Bastile Day festivities, and they were awesome. The ceveche again was great, but their kitchen was completely swamped. Our food was cold, and by the time we ledt 2 hours later, they were still 9 orders behind. If you go, stick to the ceveche and their rotisserie chicken.
Biscuit BBQ: we had a craving for chicken waffles, which is coming soon to the Gage & Tollner site, so we tried for the next best thing – Blue Ribbon. Alas, brunch was over, so we tried Biscuit BBQ. Brisket was okay, required liberal application of the vinegary red sauce. P remarked that the grits were underdone. The namesake biscuit was dry and tasted of baking soda. They do good in sponsoring community events but the food needs work.
Enroute to Seattle for the rest of the week. More entries to come.
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Countdown
We’ve officially started the countdown clock for P + I’s big day (to the right). This past Sunday, we booked a date for the wedding, which is Saturday, October 11, 2008 at 3 PM in Brooklyn Heights. Please save the date. We’ve started down the path of booking vendors.
Restaurant Run-Down
Lantern on Montague Street: Weird but tasty brunch combo of Eggs Nova (Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham) and Tom Yum soup. Delish. Will have to try their actual Thai food.
Sweet Melissa, Court Street: Had tea with 3/4 of my old time SCHK Dim Sum gang. Even with one of our members now in Taiwan, we have met at least once a year for the last 15 years. We’ve upgraded to English high tea, including scones, quiche, and small cakes. The garden in the back is great if the weather is nice.
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Magically Blonde
Today is our (P +I) 4th anniversary. To have some idea how crazy this ride has been, you have to know something about how we decided to go “steady” in the first place.
First, Kill Bill, Vol. 1 opened, which we saw in Brooklyn Heights that night. Second, we had Italian food. Third, we somehow went into the city to a bar in the Union Square area. Defenses down, I believe that we were on a bus headed downtown where it happened.
Fast forward four years, and we’re half an hour early for the musical Wicked, which P- has been bugging me to get tickets for, and I finally got her for her birthday this year. A few obstacles came up threatening our attendence. I re-injured my ankle – the same one that I messed up in Toronto – last weekend, and I’m still limping around. P- has been recovering from one of those change of weather sniffles, as well as taking time out to review movies at the New York Film Festival. To top it all off, a Broadway strike/lockout threatened to prevent the show from going on.
Well, the show did go on, and it was magnificent. As you may know, Wicked is the back story of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of Elphaba, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West (not easy being green), and her best friend from school, Glenda the Good Witch of the North, who is portrayed as a magical Elle Woods (Legally Blonde). We won’t get into spoilers, but so many questions of the characters’ origins are answered. The songs are well crafted, somehow managing to get exposition out of every verse. At the close, it seems that the cast truly enjoys each other. If there were strife backstage and in the boardrooms, it sure didn’t show in the front of the house and in the capacity audience. Recommended.
Afterwards, we went to Ellen’s Stardust Diner down the street. They have singing wait staff whose range goes from opera to Kelly Clarkson. I had chicken soup and a philly cheese steak sandwich, while P- had a turkey burger and an orange shake. Not bad. We ended up closing out the place. A little pricey, but Recommended – these people have to support their acting habit.
The countdown begins … T-1 year to the big day. We’re checking out the church on Sunday.
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The Fourth Third
Today’s Triscribe’s fourth anniversary. Thanks for your part in continuing this story!
Mosquitoes: I seem to be attracting them the past week or two, or maybe it’s the same one. P doesn’t have any bites, but I’ve picked up a half dozen or so. There’s one really annoying welt on a knuckle on my left hand.
Old New: P’s brother took us to Medieval Times in New Jersey this past weekend (it was kind of an excuse, as he needed to bring four people so that P and her brother could get free birthday tickets). It’s pretty high on kitsch and bad puns (“the Knight Club”) but the horse riding skills are real, and the pageant was entertaining.
But of course we’re going to concentrate on the food and drink. P’s sister picked up a bottle of Bunratty Meade (which you can say is “authentic” as it is imported from Ireland, but not “authentic” under the legal definition of mead (without the ‘e’), as it is a blend of honey and white wine, not a fermented honey “beer”. It was OK, but the true mead that we had at the Ohio Renaissance Fair was so much superior.
The meal that we received for our dinner theater included dragon AKA beef vegetable soup, ostensibly made on site, but tasting of food service, half a roasted chicken – which I had to say was actually better than a lot of chicken dinners that I’ve attended – accompanied by herb potatoes and a spare rib, also quite good. This was followed by a apple puff pastry and some birthday cake. Have to say we left fully sated- the only catch is that we had to eat with our hands.
New Old:We had sushi at our usual place, Nanatori on Montague St. This was our second time at the place since their renovation, and we were with P’s brother. The food was pretty much up to par with its past skill in the kitchen. We mixed things up this time – chirashi, sushi deluxe, tonkotsu.
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Speak Like a Pirate Day
AARR, it’s of course Speak Like a Pirate Day today. I’m way not clever about the RRR’s and wheRRRRforRRRes that are needed for proper diction, so let’s review an online lesson, courtesy of woot.com.
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To be thirty-something
Our friend YKC (not to be confused with YC) celebrated her third day of her 30th birthday at Tortilla Flats on Monday night, this after the aforementioned two previous days of birthday eating. There’s not much difference between being 29 and 30 in my experience, except that you’ve finally been around long enough to develop nostalgia.
There’s plenty of that at Tortilla Flats, where among the Hawaii Elvis, mariachi record covers, and Our Lady of Guadalupe portraits, is the shrine to the dean of character actors, Ernest Borgnine. Most 30somethings know him as the curmudgeonly helicopter pilot in the TV show Airwolf, but he’s been in such classics as From Here to Eternity, McHale’s Navy, the Dirty Dozen, and modern roles in Gattaca and SpongeBob SquarePants. There is also a reserved booth for him in the back, which he apparently actually uses when he is in town (one of the multitude of house rules on the menu is that all customers must yield the Booth to Mr. Borgnine if he shows up). I had the namesake dish, which was basically tacos al pastor, and P had the mole. I though my dish was excellent, and the frozen drinks were great.
The locale was picked primarily because it was “formation” bingo night, which is like traditional bingo, but you have to make the designated letter shape rather than a straight line. P messed up and didn’t exactly have the right formation when calling bingo, garnering our group a disqualification. The second game the party behind us had their own disqualification, mostly because the notable guests of honor weren’t paying attention to the rules.
Look out!A fun time was had by all – usually we’re the one that’s describing something that happened in the news, but this time around, the news wire describes something that we were at. How cool is that! P wants to also mention that a certain ex-boy band member that knows what “Chicken of the Sea” is joined the party when we were leaving. Not that we were trying to oogle or anything…just giving the usual facade of normal indifference only City natives can give and that celebs throughout the world flock to NYC for.
Recommended – the Ernie vibe by itself is sufficient, but it really helps that the food is good, and their drinks are great. And you never know which Navy man, NASCAR driver, or guy named Nick you might run into…
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Anniversary fest
This week is birthday central, with 5 bdays to celebrate – P’s best friend and maid of honor on the 12, P and my mom on the 15th, and P’s dad, brother and other friend on the 16th.
Wednesday: Essex. Judeo-Hispanic cuisine. Sentimental favorite because that was were P and I met for brunch for the first time. Best deal: Wednesday lobster night – $16 gets you a delicious complete lobster dinner. Also, you can’t miss the potato pancakes with gravlox and salmon caviar! Recommended.
Saturday: Sammy’s Fish Box . We’ve come to this famed City Island emporium of seafood a few times before, and know about the big plates, so we decided to go for a shared plate. Little did we know that the shared plates are even more ridiculously spectacular. Monstrous portions of fish, lobster, king crab, and assorted shellfish on a bed of linguine, all sitting on a plate suitable for a flounder or a jumbo turkey. I think we have a week of leftovers. Recommended if you like seafood and don’t mind the trek.
Afterwards we had desert/birthday wishes at the Black Whale. The back garden was great. Recommended if in the area.
Sunday: East Manor for dim sum later today. The last time we were here, in episode 14, we were ushering at my friend’s 650 person wedding. Eager to see if it has changed.
New banner – the aerial photo of Brooklyn wasn’t off of Google Maps – it was taken by me out the side of an American Airlines jet. Have to work on changing the photo more often.
Have to find something extra spectacular for the Four for Triscribe anniversary… any ideas?
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Yet another quiz
The Technosailor Self Importance Test
You are most like Chris Pirillo!
You are most like Chris Pirillo. You dominate your brand and do quite well in marketing it. However, you go out of the way to place the focus on other people as much as possible as a decision on power and authority. You may have many followers, readers or fans but you rarely let this distract you from your mission and focus.
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