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Saturday, April 15, 2006

New Orleans -- Bayona

So M and I took a little trip to the big easy for Spring Break and my birthday. He'd been down to Baton Rouge for some work recently and thought it would be fun to do a combination work/play thing in New Orleans.

When I mentioned to my mom where we were going, she kind of freaked out on me. She was saying that it still isn't clean, safe, etc. I even talked to my sister and she agreed with my mom. So I consulted an expert, my friend B, who works for an environmental clean-up agency and had been down to N.O. a multitude of times. He said if we stayed in places like the French Quarter and the Garden District, we should be fine. So we went!

We stayed at a beautiful old hotel called Hotel Monteleone. We never actually ate there, but we liked our room and did have a damn good rye and ginger at the Carousel Bar off the lobby. We flew in on Thursday (my birthday!!!) and went fancy schmancy by way of a great little restaurant called Bayona.

The food at Bayona was fantastic. We didn't want to make ourselves ill, so we shared an appetizer and then shared a salad before we had our entrees. The appetizer was a special that day -- it was a spectacular scallop dish, I think they were seared, and then served on scallop shell halves with a lovely, delicate sauce. Our server recommended a glass of reisling to complement the flavors in the appetizer -- it was an excellent suggestion. The pear and quail salad was next. I noticed there were some nuts on the salad, and had to ask if they were walnuts. When I mentioned that if I ate walnuts I would die, he got a little freaked out. It turned out they were pecans and I avoided eating them anyway, but our poor server never really recovered from being so rattled. Oh well.

We didn't let the nut issue get to us, though, because we had more eating to do. For my entree, I ordered another special of the day, it was buttermilk battered fried rabbit (not heavy at all). I LOVED this dish. It was so good, I had nothing left on my plate by the time I was done. M had the grouper with purple coconut rice and thai pineapple chutney. He loved his, too.

Our only regret is that we should've sat outside. It was slightly nippy, and we thought it might be too chilly to eat in the garden, but the inside of the restaurant was pretty brisk, too. Oh well.

E.O.D. Bathroom Rating: I did get to check out the ladies room before we left for the evening. When I walked in the bathroom, there was a mirrored wall to my left, and as I came through the door, I thought I was walking in to someone. Other than that, the bathroom had an old feel to it because of it's small size. It was nice, though. I'd give it 3 out of 5 flushes.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Pho Fusion

I don't know what it was about the allure of Dodgeball, but I felt compelled to play. And play I did. Once I arrived, I realized I was on one of only two faculty teams and there were around twenty student teams, mostly boys. It could have been worse...

I mention this because one of the student teams was Team Pho, and they were wearing the cool t-shirts from Pho Fusion, one of which says "pho-natic" and the other which says "pho-shizzle." So clever. I've actually seen these students at Pho Fusion during lunch when I'm trying to do anything but run into students. At least these guys were less enthusiastic about my presence than I was about there's.

But on to why this place is so awesome. It could be the charisma of the owner, Tom Bird. He is a natural at the art of sincere small talk (if there is such a thing), and seems to be a downright good guy. You want him to succeed, and there's little doubt that he will.

But it's not just about Tom. It's the food. It is exceptional. The quality and freshness of the ingredients is truly amazing and totally comes through in the food. My two favorite dishes are the chicken pho (although the beef is spectacular) and the pad thai. A word about the pho. I could go on and on about how good it is, but you could read about that anywhere. I want to talk about that big plate of pho accoutrements. The plate includes thai basil, cilantro, jalapeno slices, a wedge of lime and a big bunch of bean sprouts. I almost feel guilty because I use only a fraction of this fresh goodness: one or two torn basil leaves, a small squeeze of lime, a few cilantro leaves, and a one or two jalepeno slices (after I poke the seeds off). I never touch the bean sprouts -- not a fan. But I feel so wasteful! I feel guilty! I secretly hope that my unused produce gets recycled in some way (yet I'm equally horrified by the thought).

I need to let it go and enjoy the pho for its own sake. It is so good -- you just feel virtuous after having pho for lunch (or dinner). Even when I've gone a bit overboard and consumed just enough to send me to the other side of sloshy, I know it's only liquid and it will pass. Maybe if I keep eating at Pho Fusion, I'll be in tip-top shape for next year's dodgeball and I'll be pho-nominal! (sorry)

E.O.D. Bathroom Rating: It's pretty spare in there. Very white. Kind of like when in the Matrix, they're in the "construct" before the guns come swooshing in. 2.5 out of 5 flushes.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Capital Grille

I've now resolved to get back on the blogging tip. I was at a meeting the other day and there was this chick who writes children's books and she was talking about the writing process and her rituals, etc., and I was thinking "I like to write! I want rituals!" Then, of course, I thought of this blog, which is the closest thing to writing that I do, and the self-loathing began.

But I'm not one to dwell! So I've created a ritual for myself to encourage consistency in the frequency of my postings. (I'm shooting for a minimum of once a week.) Now that my hubby, M has entered a Suduko moment -- tryin' to keep the gray matter well-lubricated -- I thought the weekend mornings when he's Suduko-ing would be perfect. And so here I am.

Now on to more important things -- dining! Last night we went to the Capital Grille on Larimer for dinner before the symphony (AWESOME show, by the way!) We had never been there before because it always seemed that when the honeymoon buzz was lingering at Capital Grille, we could never get a reservation when we wanted one. The other thing is that we're not really big steak-restaurant people. M and I both are of the opnion that when you dine out and throw down the cash, one of the essential things you're paying for is the talent and innovation of the chef.

In Denver, the layperson has access to exceptional-quality meat. We'll get a couple of filets from Whole Foods (for a price, mind you) and because of the quality of the meat, all it needs is a little salt and pepper before (or sometimes after) you slap it on the grill. Steak that good and that simply prepared doesn't need the blue cheese and the rubs and all the other stuff. So, for that reason, we rarely patronize places like Morton's, Sullivan's, etc.

But this time we did, and it was good. The crab and lobster cake was okay. The lobster meat was the stand out, but the quality of the crab wasn't lumpy enough for me. The actual steaks, themselves, were quite good. M had the Kona (decaf!) coffee rub on a medium rare aged sirloin. It came with shallots and some butter-cream sauce that he scraped off. When I first tasted it, I liked it more than my dish. Very flavorful and, obviously, good quality meat. I ordered the sliced filet (medium rare) that comes with cippolini onions and mushrooms. At first I wasn't loving it because my previously described prejudices about a simply-prepared filet were clouding my judgement, but eventually it grew on me. It was perfectly cooked, and as I went on to enjoy it with the classic creamed spinach we ordered as a side, I realized that I had been won over.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not planning to convert to steak house dining. I'm just saying that if I were to go to a steak place, this experience helps me to decide which one to attend and to have the knowledge that it can be quite good.

Oh, by the way, the bottle we ordered was perfect. It was a 2000 Bordeaux that was pretty reasonably priced $70-80 and, after decanting, opened up really nicely.

E. O. D. Bathroom Rating: I didn't use the facilities at Captial Grille. I ended up using the ladies' at the Samba Room (you may want to turn down your volume before clicking this link) because M wanted to squeeze in a quick post-steak, pre-symphony cigar. Nice bathroom. I kind of enjoy the runway effect of the corridor to the bathrooms, too. 4 out of 5 flushes for the Samba Room bathroom.