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#162
11-10-2010, 08:32 PM
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I shall delight you with my culinary memories of the trip. Thursday evening: street food from a farmer's market in San Luis Obispo, the highlight being fish tacos. Heh heh. Friday breakfast: so-so breakfast from hotel, nummy sausage from elsewhere. Friday lunch: wonderful burgers at an American-themed café called Archie’s near the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in the opposite direction of Cannery Row. We drew on the paper tablecloth with crayons - UNCLY STOP IT!!!! This is a family place!! Friday dinner: Cafe Gibraltar in El Granada, a chic restaurant in a tiny beachside town south of San Francisco and just north of Half Moon Bay. Moroccan food. We ate on pillows on the floor in a cozy nook. Superb ambiance, wonderful bread. DeboDeb loved the food; it didn't work for me personally, but my shrimp bisque was still quite good. Gooey had a lamb stew-type meal, Uncly had dumplings (surprise!), Franny had rabbit with noodles. Gooey and DeboDeb also had great salads that they let us sample. Uncly sweet-talked the hostess into the restaurant's bread recipe (BANG!! SECOND SURPRISE!!!). Shortly before we ate, I leapt out of the car in Half Moon Bay to see an infamous alpaca; I did not eat him, though I must admit to pondering the thought of smuggling him back for Clyde. Friday evening: Amante, a bar. Great decor, so-so mixed drinks. The waitress inadvertently flashed Uncly and Gooey, who were both pleased. I was too busy watching the balloon woman who had a balloon creation of a naked woman on her cart and made a flower for two half-drunken women who declared the balloon woman the most fantastic person ever. Whatevah. Saturday brunch: tasty sandwiches at Molinari's, an Italian market with outdoor seating only on a busy avenue. Ingredients in our tasty sandwiches included various Italian meats, cheeses, turkey, artichoke hearts, sweet peppers, and more. Nom nom. Saturday dinner: Le Colonial, a French/Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Derby Cat. Located in a narrow white building with a staircase up to the portico (where we ate), a dark interior with colonial decor, and a bar upstairs. Uncly chose the appetizer: crispy duck rolls. I ate a lovely dish of chicken, white and dark, with shitake mushrooms and green beans; meal could have been a bit spicier or sweeter, and desperately needed more mushrooms, but it was presented well. The dark chicken morsels were especially good. Franny had a wonderful vegetable curry with broken rice sauteed with three kinds of onions -- sooo good. Gooey and DeboDeb both had so-so pho. Saturday evening: coffee at a chocolate bar and cafe joint in the Castro recommended by Vic. Nice little place with black, brown, and white candy-stripe decor. Enjoyed the Castro -- no one seemed bothered by anybody else or anything. If you know what ah mean. Gooey and Franny debated buying chocolate cream-filled penispops from a delicious-smelling bakery, but we all felt a little too full for more food. Saturday night: Toronado, a bar recommended by a Uncly's hosebag waitress friend from Half Moon Bay. The walls are lined with shelves that contain no-longer used taps. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. Uncly had pomegranate cider (“Two Rivers”), DeboDeb had a dark chocolate-y porter, and I had a very bitter pale ale. We couldn't get seats so we left..... SPIT!! Sunday: overpriced dim sum at Yank Sing. The pot stickers were quite good. The building had a three-story waterfall in the center – amazing! Sunday afternoon: excellent, excellent, excellent coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee Company, recommended by yours truly. The company has “a hands-on approach to every step possible to discover and preserve the true nature of excellent coffee -- no matter how inconvenient or time-consuming.” Extremely, if not excessively, trendy place. Kind, helpful [and many] baristas. I don’t think Gooey liked their mochas better than Intelligentsia’s, but who could? My latte was scrumptious. They make their drip coffee with vacuum siphon pots and actually give mini ones out to coffee-goers to share at the bar. Sunday dinner: Ubuntu in Napa, an overpriced, snooty, unbalanced, but generally very good vegetarian/vegan food restaurant and local yoga studio. (People do yoga in the loft above the restaurant during lunch.) Met Coach Pants there. The waitress kept pushing for us to get multiples of their overpriced dishes, which soured the experience to a large degree. Coach jabbed his fork in her eye. They just seemed to be trying too hard. They needed a tasting menu. Highlights included the bread, the "foie-vocado" (which consisted of essentially guacamole, gooseberries, a spicy sweet sauce, and yellow plums eaten in a piece of bread), the grits, and their magica salad or symphony salad or whatever they called it. The presentation of this last dish was the most interesting: it consisted only of things they have in their own garden, which included leafy greens, brightly colored flowers, sprouts, spicy “dirt,” and a bug (not so vegetarian, eh?). I loved the Ad Astra chardonnay that DeboDeb chose. I mean to track it down. Franny liked her Napa Valley pilsner; quite nice, quite sweet. Sunday evening: coffee at the Starbucks nearby our hotel. Meh. Monday morning: a surprisingly okay breakfast from the nice Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon. Monday late morning/early afternoon: wine tasting! We went to Clos du Val, Rutherford, and the Beaulieu Vineyard tasting room. The pourer at CDV illuminated us of his former coke habit in Miami. Interesting individual. He told me he doesn’t drink beer because he’ll get fat and won’t get ass. I high-fived him. He gave us two big glasses of $125/bottle wine and poured way too much Merlot. The other wine pourers were a tad stodgy, though Rutherford did give us wines not on their list and even let us taste a port (strange, since we embarked on the white list). Napa Valley, I learned, is heavy on reds because it’s so hot. (It got to 105 ° at one point.) Country is not as beautiful as Santa Ynez. Monday afternoon/lunch: Gooey took us to Taylor’s Automatic Refresher. Good burgers, really good garlic (and green!) garlic fries. They served wine there! Holy crap. They had a corkage fee. We didn’t do that. Monday dinner: Mexican food in Soledad. Carne aside wasn’t great, too fatty, but the chicken was delicious. . . . All in all, quite satisfactory. . . . Last edited by Rudeboyelvis : 11-10-2010 at 10:03 PM. |
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#164
11-10-2010, 08:40 PM
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It sounds like I had a marvelous time!  (I've got to see a doctor about these blackout periods.  )
__________________
Hillary Clinton 2016: The "Extremely Careless" Leadership America Needs! |
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#166
11-10-2010, 09:49 PM
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Wow Rudy that was fantastic!
 I had a great time too. Thanks for the trip!  |
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#170
11-11-2010, 04:43 AM
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#172
11-11-2010, 09:53 AM
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^^
On Carnival cruise ship. Just got innynet access restored. |
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#175
11-11-2010, 11:07 AM
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#177
11-11-2010, 11:40 AM
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#178
11-11-2010, 11:47 AM
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Did you go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium? I went to college nearby there, and loved getting stoned prior to hitting up the aquarium. It was a pretty neat place even with my head on straight too.
Did you guys hit up The French Laundry when you were in Napa? I'm guessing you didn't, if you didn't mention it. It's considered to be the best restaurant in the country. Quote:
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#180
11-11-2010, 06:38 PM
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Story time!!!!
Don't everyone leave--sit down! A HAUNTING BY LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE What can I say? I was looking for RedHot.I knew of it's nuances.But they were out and I saw the deep pull this syrupy crimson stuff showed...so I got it.A bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Little did I realize what an infamous event that little decision would make. I used it that night.It enhanced the flavor of the 88 cent nuke n' serve Banquet NEW Macaroni Cheese and Beef , my choice of ffod this night.;which is all I could ask it to do.I put the bottle back in the cabinet for safe keeping.I had learned something..and that is, where you take it from...you put it in the same place. That means if I buy it off a shelf,I store it on a shelf .If I buy it from a freezer,I store it in the ice box. One learns. Anyhoo....3 days later I decide to repeat the dinner and fire thing again.I was in front of the cabinet in the kitchen where I last put the hot sauce.I had absolutley no idea what horror was about to take place from this simple,plebian,every day manuever.Had I, that "THING" would have stayed in in its burial vault forever. The rest is not for the easily thudded...I warn you. The cabinet door, I tugged on it and it opened. The explosion was almost defeaning;the crimson burst like a bomb going off too close.I went temporarily deaf ( shut up) and blind all at the same time.Dazed by the concussive affects,I stood there a while. How long...I don't know. Coming to, I was quickly able to assess what had taken place.The bottle of hot sauce was sloppily placed on the shelf;only the cabinet door was making it .."stay." So when there was no longer any support...gravity reared it's oh so ugly head and forced the bottle downward.It slammed to the counter top,breaking in half. ( by the way...are you thinking how plastic is our friend?..I am )The contents were propelled out and over---everything.The counter top, it's 4 inch ledge against the wall, the wall,he cheap coffee maker, the cheaper toaster and a cheap incense holder.The bottle broke in two.It looked as though a particularly disturbed serial killer had gone Borrel and keft this crime scene. Not satisfied with it's devastation,the two pieces had decided to bounce from the counter top and dive to the floor, making the some awful blood splatter mess all over the floor ( thank my luckies it didn't spell out anything) and all over the wooden front of the counter. I took all this in. Then I said.. aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I heard the Psycho music play. This mess had to get cleaned up fast as I knew from Klutzology class how hot sauce can really stain bad. But I had no more paper towels...nor rags!! I decided to run in the back room and fetch the least valued towel, sweat pants, sweat shirt and whatever else I could get my hands on.This was big a mess. So I gathered this stuff, ran back to the kitchen and began this awful clean up .I recall humming a happy tune to myself to accompany my clean up: goddamitynogoodmothahfucl<in'messofasunnybitcin'co kesooooocare!!i'l killyoui'llkillyoui'llkillyou It was fun. Done,I was happy again. Looked it all over to make sure it was all gone and it was . Then ,like a fool, I looked at the side of the stove which had decided to hide more damage ...only 6 inches away. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Massive blood splatter. more Psycho music! Back running to the back room for more clothes and towels...second least needed. Another mess cleaned up. Thank God. I needed a shower now,sweaty and spent as I was. Mirrors are not always our friends. I enjpy looking in the mirror.I never pass one without stopping to see how I look...especially my dupa profile. So, in the bathroom...I did stop to look. aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! I was covered with hot sauce!!!!! COVERED!! more Psycho music! All over my face, all over my sweatshirt, all over my pants. Horrified as I was, I had to move fast.I stripped myself clean excpet for my Hukon Eric Worker Man Shoes.Right into the bath tub went all the clothes..plenty of hot water. Wait a minute--did I say I left my shoes on?? aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! more Pycho music! What were once tan shoe were now crimson shoes. My eyes never thought to look that far down.I took hand soap and hot water threw them immediately in the sink.Once done, like a stone age moron...I thought all was finally accounted for.There could not possibly be anymore traces of that hot sauce ...anywhere. But I kept thinking about those shoes.Something really bothered me about them. Then it hit me. Oh my God!!..nnnnnnnno!!!.Please God....nnnnno!!I looked at the bottom of my shoes. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!![i][b] more psycho music!! I threw them off and into the bath tub.I then sank to the floor...naked, exhausted and completely frustrated. After a few minutes..somehow those shoes still bothered me.I didn't know quite why...but they did.I tried to do still frame thinking.Shoes....walk.....on surfaces....bottoms of shoes meet surfaces........bottoms of these shoes covered with crimson hot sauce...................hmmmm.......... nnnnnnoooooo!!!!!!!! I snapped up and ran to t he hallway leading back to the kitchen. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! Bloody footprints EVERYWHERE!! Then my next bright idea was to look back to that other section of hallway which lead to the back room. AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Oh my God!! Bloody footprints EVERYWHERE! Then like a crazed wounded savage I got the bright idea to look inside at that back room. AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! more psycho music!! And the walls!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! I can't go on. The memories are too painful and horrific. Last edited by clyde : 11-11-2010 at 06:51 PM. |
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