Greek Festival!

No, it's not a fraternity/sorority thing. It's the 35th annual Greek Festival here in the city, celebrating food and dancing and Greek culture and carnival and shopping and food and the whole everything! I haven't been in years, but I hear they have several whole roast lambs. Maybe I'll remember the camera. My mouth is watering, just thinking of the possibilities.

I don't know of any actual Greek games off the top of my head expect for those that are merely Greek-themed. No, the Olympics don't count.

When I picked up dinner last night at my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant, I happened into the owner. I haven't seen him in a while; we do a lot more pick-up than sit-down these days. So we chatted for a bit, and I realized that I hadn't seen him since before I proposed to Cat, so I proudly showed off my ring and announced our engagement.

I got big smiles, a hug, and congratulations.

I also realized that I've known a restaurateur longer than my fiancée. I love this town.

A little slice of perfect

On the last Saturday of the month, the Arts Council of New Orleans holds their Arts Market four blocks from our home.

Cat usually works mornings on Saturdays and often wakes me up with a coffee and promises of the market. Some days we just go and look, taking cards and memories for future decor. If Cat's low on any of her varieties of handmade soap, we buy. I bought Cat an anniversary present there. We did all our holiday shopping there one year.

Bamboula 2000 were playing, a loud upbeat tune as familiar as walking, the rhythms second nature and the words unknown- but you bet we all sung along.

Walking hand in hand with the woman I love, happily squelching in the park avoiding wet patches from yesterday's rain because we both have shoes with holes, smelling the kettle corn and the press of the crowd with dogs and babies. Inevitably, we will run into people here: This week I saw an old work buddy, his wife, and their infant. We missed my good friend Carl and his wife Jackie by minutes (they walked down to say hi anyway), and we said hello to the regular vendors.

We make new friends, too. There's a new Italian deli place I've never heard of, Just Italy. We each got a quarter-muffuletta, garlicky, oily, and perfectly dressed with damn fine olive relish. We hunkered down on the sidewalk, happily eating and looking at the crowd and the band and the vendors. The weather was perfect- no clouds, a nice breeze, sunny enough but not too. After devouring the muffs, we pick up another two quarters for later, share a Katrina moment with the deli guy and get a free T-shirt. Right next to the deli, hot fresh made-to-order crepes. I got Black and Gold: Nutella and banana.

Call it two slices of perfect.

Valentine's Day Dining

Figaro's reopened last week. They've been closed since the storm.

Cat and I knew that we had to go, and soon. We weren't regular regulars, but we ate there perhaps once every two months or so. It's nice to have a neighborhood Italian restaurant that lets you eat some slow food.

We made a date for Valentine's.

To start, we had the famous Figaro's Terrine, a layered pine nuts/cheese/sun-dried tomatoes/magic/some other cheese/pesto/goat cheese/love/sun-dried tomatoes with crostini bread.

Then, salads: a mixed greens with almonds and vinaigrette for me; a most excellent spicy garlicky real Caesar for Cat. The only better Caesar I've had that comes to mind was made tableside for me.

Entrees: Portobello stuffed ravioli in a light alfredo sauce for her; a sherried chicken in penne for me. Naturally, we shared. All was delicious.

We had a lovely slow dinner on the patio. It took us maybe two hours to eat; the server warned us that they were slow, operating with a limited menu and reduced help in the kitchen. I know that I saw the owner hustling back there, and I don't think they had more than two servers for fifteen-twenty tables.

Step by step and bite by bite we come back from the land of LAMRON.

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday seemed to prove the old adage about bad things coming in threes. Today, on the other hand...

Today, my man Simon lent me his old Sony Ericsson T68i with plenty of gizmos: a camera attachment, an analog converter, even a German power adapter in case I happen to travel in the next little while. Luckily, T-Mobile had already unlocked his phone, so it was a simple matter to slap my SIM card and bam, phone service. A few minutes of convincing my laptop and my phone to play nicely, and through the miracle of Bluetooth, I had all my contacts.

Today, we also hit up the Saturday farmer's market in the Warehouse District; I had plans for exactly two things: red lentil balls and whole milk from Smith creamery. I made out with no lentil balls, some fresh tamales (cheese/jalepeno and veggie), my coveted whole milk straight from cows, a slice of Cajun bread pudding, a taste of mango popsicle, four bucks worth of incredibly delicious and fresh spinach, a free Lexmark all-in-one, and an almond praline variation called "Nipples of Venus."

Today, I hacked at a borrowed AP. Finally I have a working (and legitimate) wireless bridge on a nice, strong signal. Hooray, tubes.

Today, we arranged a fivesome for Fury of Dracula (BGG, BUY ME!). Bennett arranged to be Drac, and Margaret, myself, Leslie, and Daniel teamed up to stomp his fanged self. The game dragged a bit in the middle, but we seriously weakened him with our use of allies that hurt him while at sea and when he used some of his powers in combat. Margaret came down and killed him with a stake very close to Leipzig. Go, Team Hunter!

Today: we once again have water. Hot water, cold water, running water. The sink is refreshing. The toilet is a relief. A shower is glory.

Food envy, defined

"When you eat and you look at other diners' plates with lust and longing, that's food envy. When you actually dip your fork into their plates, that's envy indulged." — Lee I.

What can I say? It's a genetic condition. I get it from my mother.

Last night, I had a barbecue chicken pizza poboy- basically two french bread pizzas with bits of sweet-tangy BBQ chicken and sauce openfaced, with a nice and crisp fuji apple. It was mas delicioso! Earlier in the week, I had a great spinach salad from a little place around the corner from work: Spinach and a house-made vinaigrette with goat cheese, beets, mandarin oranges, pecans, and pieces of bacon with a giant hunk of we-made-it-here-cause-we're-a-bakery fresh baguette.

Mischa's pesto recipe

Simon and Ariel had a housewarming party, and I decided to make pesto. I love the stuff and it's vegetarian-friendly, which is a plus if you're not sure of a guest list. It uses cheese, so no love for the vegans here. (As you no doubt know, I love Frank Sinatra brand pesto sauce.)

What goes in my pesto? Basil. Garlic. Crushed red pepper. Black pepper. Lemon juice. Romano cheese. Pine nuts. Olive oil. In this batch, I added Asiago cheese, walnuts, sea salt, plus the secret ingredient: one packet of Splenda, I kid you not.

Whenever I cook, I do so in a very gestalt, organic fashion. I don't really follow a recipe from a book, but I will look at what others have done and extrapolate amounts and quantities and proportions. I taste my product constantly. One downside to the back apartment is that my mise is tiny- I've got barely a square yard to prep and measure and hold the food processor.

I bought four packets of fresh basil (one day, an herb garden). I started with two: wash in cold water, pick off the leaves, and toss the stems. Toss into the food processor.

Take a bulb of garlic. Peel it. Put all of the cloves into the processor. Chop. Add a bit of olive oil (Never don't cook with extra virgin olive oil. NEVER EVER, no matter what.) and blend a bit- ride the throttle and pulse, don't just whale it to "on." Pick out the whole chunks of garlic that didn't get food processed and just mince them. Re-add your freshly minced garlic.

Throw in some crushed red pepper, then a bit more because when you make it, you won't use enough. Slice a lemon in half, squeeze some juice in. Pick out the seeds. Put the other half in the fridge, but keep your squeezable half handy- you'll use it frequently. Grab a small handful of pine nuts, and process. Do this again: EVOO, lemon, small handful of pine nuts. Now add a small handful of walnuts, and remember the cheese.

Cut your Romano into thirds. Take the first third and run it through the processor. Add your third pack of basil leaves (no stems, rinse 'em), adding EVOO and lemon. If you have fresh ground black pepper, grind it into the mixture, otherwise use regular black pepper. Add more, because you won't use enough. Then throw in more crushed red pepper, another small handful of pine nuts, and more lemon. Skip the EVOO this go. Process in waves.

Grab your sea salt and put in a little bit- but not too much. Chances are that your sea salt has large grains and won't dissolve or get crushed easily. So: sprinkle, pulse, sprinkle, pulse, sprinkle. You do not want to add too much salt.

Remember your middle third of Romano? Grate that into the mix. Might as well add half your Asiago, too. You want to get your crumbles of cheese all throughout the mixture.

Take your last bunch of basil and add its leaves with a bit more lemon and pine nuts. Process a little bit to mix things up, and tap in your packet of Splenda while spinning.

You can put this into the fridge for a good while- at least a few days. About an hour before you serve, pull it out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature. Take a healthy spoonful of EVOO and stir, do it again and probably a third time to get to the right consistency. Finally, drizzle a bit more olive oil on top- the first bite is taken with the eye.

This method sounds a bit insane, but it works. The method behind the madness is to avoid homogeneity in your pesto. You want layers of flavors and textures. One day, I shall make pesto like an Italian grandmother. Someone find me a quality cooking board and mezzaluna!

A few quickies

I recently found a little lifehacky site to offload birthday reminders. I want to avoid forgetting things, so feel free to enter your birthday (year optional, if you're shy) and have a machine kick me annually so I won't forget. Yes, I'm sure some of you would like a machine to kick me at some regular interval. [EDIT: link fixed]

You may have heard of a game variously called Werewolf or Mafia (BGG, WP). It's a social game, with one side trying to win over the other. Evidently, middle schoolers in New England can't handle the truth. Heaven forbid that children are exposed to anything potentially disturbing! [EDIT: link fixed also]

The Picayune has a nicely uplifting Post-K tale (alternate link) about a couple who opened a restaurant I want to explore, Cafe Arabesque.

Italian Thanksgiving

What better way to celebrate the holiday than with family and good food?

I had turtle soup with a very nice roux; the Brucciolone, which at Salvatore Ristorante in Fat City is tenderized veal wrapped around cheese, vegetables, secret-who-knows-what-spice and an egg all over penne; and warm bread pudding with an unusually delightful cinnamon sauce.


What did you eat?

Daily update

I'm told the Saints won again today! Small price then, for me to miss watching the games. I think I may sometimes jinx the team.

Dinner yesterday: buffalo steaks from Whole Foods. (My mom calls them "Whole Paycheck.") Dinner today: a new-to-me Vietnamese place called Jazmine Cafe. I'd go back, but I miss a biweekly or weekly jaunt to Pho Tau Bay. I should go to the one on the West Bank and see how they're doing.

NaNoWriMo count: 2584 words. I need to be at 6668 by tonight to stay on quota. I'm not much worried, even though I've fallen behind. One good day of solid writing will get me back on track. I'll probably hit the keyboard a bit today in front of DS9.

I seriously need to start blogging about boardgames again, as well as update my various wishlists.

Voice to text to screen to...

Yikes, I almost missed my daily post.

I don't like to drive, and my mind tends to wander quite a bit. I tend to view almost all travel as a waste of mental effort- where the hell are my flying cars? I've got better things to do.

Yesterday, I wanted to remind myself to do something, and I didn't want to dig out my cheapie 99-cent pocket notebook out while driving and try to write. I thought about leaving myself a message and tried to find the voice memo feature buried somewhere in my phone.

Lifehacker mentioned a service called Jott, one of these hip new not-perfectly-named Web 2.0 kinds of beta services. The practical upshot is that you call the 800 number, talk, and both human and automatic transcription turns your message into an email or a text message. I found out that you also get the source audio, too.

Seems like there's some nifty potentials here: talk a text message to a group of contacts seems very handy these days, as well as possibly just voicing a blog post: Call Jott, Jott transcribes and sends to Blogger, Blogger autoposts. I'll give that a try soon, I think.

In other news, I obtained a copy of Leopard (gotta back up!) and had buffalo steak and garlic potatoes for dinner. Yummo!

Brazilian Steakhouse

Last night, John and Jen took us out to go eat at Estancia Churrascaria, a Brazilian steakhouse. In short, it was a damn fine place to eat.

I had never eaten Brazilian-style steakhouse before, but evidently everyone and the grandmother has heard of all-you-can-eat steak "with the swords." Yes, all you can eat. They served us two courses: a salad and a meat course, both unlimited. The salad bar was very nice, with delicious artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, huge mushrooms, hearts of palm, lettuces, cheeses, fruit and more. All very fresh, crisp, and never empty.

To get meat, we had a signal for the servers. Each diner has a laminated card with a red side and a green side. When there's green side up, men in pantaloons with Brazilian rotisserie on swords appear out of nowhere to slice freshly cooked meat at your request, directly onto your plate- a small set of tongs makes up part of your silver service. We had leg of lamb, beef ribs, chicken breasts, pork sausage, bottom round, and two or three kinds of house special seasoned beef.

Finally, I had the best flan I've ever had there. Amazingly rich, creamy, and possessing the right balance of egginess and caramel.

If you ever get a chance to eat at a churrascaria, do so.

Delicious, delicious food

Unlike our last long visit, we didn't have a definitive list of where we wanted to eat. Here's a recap of what I ate.

• Saturday dinner: Roman Pizza, the famed "Garlic Love" 'za. Take a pizza, make it with garlic sauce instead of red sauce. Two toppings: Fresh salami and fresh garlic. Heaven.
• Sunday lunch: Dot's Diner, a breakfast poboy. French bread, a plain omelette, cheese, bacon.
• Sunday dinner: Red Star, chicken with black bean sauce, my secret Chinese food weakness.
• Monday lunch: Fellini's Cafe. Spinach salad with walnuts and Gorgonzola and a nice vinaigrette, spicy tomato spread with pita.
  
• Monday dinner: Lebanon's Cafe. Sheer Middle Eastern wondrous food. Lula plate, Chicken Shwarma plate, Gyro plate, Chef's special, a kibby, labna, hummus, and a burma. Pity they were out of Turkish Coffee, for it is glorious. The special Lebanese tea with rosewater and pine nuts is also missed.
• Tuesday lunch: Fresco, a turkey sandwich.
• Tuesday dinner: Five Happiness. Sautéed String Bean without Pork, Shrimp in Lobster sauce, General's Chicken, Sizzling Chicken, Bean Curd and Beef, Pecan Shrimp, Sweet and Sour Pork, Mongolian Beef. Eight different dishes for nine people. It's the N - 1 rule of Chinese food. Plus soups and rice, white and brown.
  
• Wednesday lunch: The world-famous Camellia Grill. Cheeseburger, chocolate freeze, a slice of aple pie à la mode.
• Wednesday dinner: Homemade BBQ and herbed chicken, plus barbecue baked beans. We know how I feel about Texas' attempt at beans with BBQ, so this was a most welcome dish.
• Thursday lunch: R & O's. Homemade tamales and an Italian sausage poboy.
• Thursday dinner: Danny and Clyde's. Roast beef poboy, dressed no lettuce with creole mustard. Add Zapp's Cajun Dill chips and a Hubig's coconut pie.
• Friday lunch: Caffe! Caffe! A spinach salad and a hot chai.
• Friday dinner: Bud's Broiler. Cheeseburger, cheese fries.
• Saturday lunch: Crazy Johnnie's. Dippin' Bread, fillet Mischa [sic], crazy garlic potatoes. Also a Dr Pepper.
• Saturday dinner: Spudly's Super Spuds. Barbecue beef, cheese and chives on a baked potato the size of both fists.
• Sunday lunch: Favori. Half a roast beef poboy and half a french fry poboy.
  

Life is too short to eat bad food, people.

A few thoughts on food, part 2: the Revenge

You've probably heard the old expression, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." Maybe it's true. When you say something a little foolish, it doesn't feel as though it's true.

I made an inflammatory statement over the weekend about the relative intelligence of vegetarians. Let's not mince words: I called vegetarians, carnivores, and vegans dumb — which I'll admit is a poor choice of expression. Corvus and Russ' comments on that entry made me strongly reconsider my words. I wrote without considering my words and my audience. Not smart on my part, period.

When I stopped to think about it, I let my mind wander over the people I know who eat different, and why, and I read my words as though I was in their shoes. I know a guy who's a vegetarian for religious reasons. I knew a guy back in high school who was politically vegan and needed to take vitamin supplements due to his chosen diet. My mom doesn't like to eat "anything with a face," which means that chickens and fish are fair game (pardon the pun) to her. I know a guy who lives on hamburgers and potatoes and hates green things. I know different meat-eaters who only eat their beef rare or well-done, both ends of the spectrum. I know people who won't eat certain kinds meat on certain days out of the year. I know a woman who cuts out sugar for health reasons, and I know a man who changed his diet after a gall bladder operation. I know someone who doesn't like bell pepper because "they don't like me!" Are they reading this, but keeping silent? I hope not.

When I saw the first comment, I admit that I had briefly considered the option of deleting my previous post or softening the tone of my remarks. This is teh internets, right? Any electronic information can be readily changed with ease, and it's not unheard of for bloggers or news agencies or corporations or popular websites to enact revisionist electronic history. Bah and humbug, say I! That's no way to run a community, even one so tiny as this. People don't always realize just how much an effect they have on others, and I'd like to not waste this mistake. Learn from your mistakes, lest you have to repeat them. Russ and Corvus don't know me very well, and they misread my intentions. What about the rest of the world, who know me even less well, or not at all? I'd rather this response speak to my character than sweeping it under the rug. Even so, I will update the previous post to point to this one.

Let me also explicitly say a few more things in direct response to Corvus and to Russ- I don't like to comment on my own blog and I'd now rather have this post above the fold. Firstly, I'm going to steal the phrase "meddlesome idiot," and make use of it the next opportunity I can- thanks for the addition to my lexicon! Secondly, yes, the food industry is totally out of whack given the number of people we have on the planet, who all must eat. I wish there was a more efficient way to distribute higher quality food to everyone who needs it. In my heart of hearts, I know that we need genetically modified higher-yield crops unencumbered by patent law or interspecies havoc, or space-age artificial foods like the fungus-based (and tasty) Quorn or textured soy protein or vat-grown animal protein, or gene therapy to eradicate lactose intolerance. Maybe I read too much science fiction, but I really think we-as-a-species need to start thinking more long-term. Thirdly, I haven't heard from any meat-eaters about being labeled "dumb," and I wonder why. Fourthly, I still believe that the human animal has adapted to eating meat and vegetables based on my incomplete understanding of our gut and our teeth- but we're more than just animals, hence the importance of our ability to (more-or-less) rationally choose what we eat. Biologically, meat is a pretty efficient source of protein. Logistically, and in this day and age and given population, too much meat's got issues. Lastly, I just got in an order of Vegemite. Anyone who doesn't like Vegemite is a meddling idiot! :) But seriously, I like eating the stuff. Go figure. I'm from New Orleans and I don't like seafood. Yes, that's a little weird in and of itself.

Thanks for reading, everyone. On a lighter note, I have some didj pictures and another video to post. Expect them up later this evening, unless my muse poops on my head and I'm inspired to write a roleplaying game.

A few thoughts on food

Vegetarians and vegans are dumb. Then again, so are carnivores. People, please. We're omnivores. Look at our teeth — end of discussion.

Today, I ate a delicious black-and-blue burger, which is a hamburger patty that's been blackened on the grill with pepper and other spices then sprinkled with bleu cheese, plus garlic mashed potatoes and awesome spicy African peanut soup. (Pity nobody in fscking Austin knows how to cook a burger medium-rare.) Later in the day, I got a delicious vegetarian wrap: Brown rice, black beans, chili hummus, guacamole, roasted corn, roasted onions, and carrots. Both were tasty and hit the spot. Ah, but there's the rub- they both hit different spots. When I wanted meat and cheese, I had; when I wanted vegetables, I had.

Anyone who eats only vegetables or only meat is missing out. It's about balance and choice.

UPDATE: Please read my response to the comments on this article.

Garlic apropos

Courtesy of today's A.Word.A.Day:

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. -Alice May Brock, author (1941- )

According to Wikipedia, this is the eponymous Alice of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant.

Dinner and dessert

My grandmother shipped us muffulettas and king cake!










Josh and Megan came over to eat with Cat and I; we had a veritable feast. Truth be told, my grandmother shipped us three muffs for four people, which is enough food to last us for days. I'll probably bring the leftover king cake to game night, since the office is getting their own on Tuesday. Nobody got the baby.

What did you have for dinner?

Tis the season for eggnog

Soon I shall continue with my annual tradition of buying some seasonal eggnog to save for a time when I can enjoy it and forget about in the fridge for a few months.

I love eggnog, but it wasn't until I was in my late twenties that I realized that most people A) make homemade eggnog and B) add liquor to it. Yet another perfectly decent consumable that doesn't need alcoholic improvement.

Driving to/from home [fixed]

Posting via cell, between Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Picked us up a muffaletta for the drive. Cat says: like a mouthful of heaven. I agree and savor mine because I already miss the garlicky olive relish. Hard to sleep last night-cried and thought about the future and the past. Home is good but different and familiar and strange, more than any homecoming has the right to be. I know nothing stays the same and nothing should; I know it more now.

Food

I've woken up from a nap after Chinese buffet for Thanksgiving and Cat's watching the Top Chef marathon on Bravo; I am overwhelmed with food.

We had a list of places on the must-eat list. Whenever you come to New Orleans, there's never enough time to eat everything you want, and I knew we were overbooked to begin with. Our meal schedule was nearly done on the drive in. So far we've hit almost everything. Props to Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Menu site- now 709 restaurants open, and only one hundred left to go before we hit the pre-storm number!

The list:

1. Lebanon's: Chef's special: hummus, taboule, labne, spinach salad, baba ganoush, kibby, falafel, grape leaves, Lebanese tea, and burma.
   
2. Lee's hamburgers: A works, hold the lettuce, fries, and a Dr Pepper.
   
3. Franky & Johnny's, sort of. Zeke's is now open by F&J's owners with their menu: Roast beef poboy, dressed no lettuce with Tabasco. Cat had a half-dozen oysters and boiled shrimps.
   
4. Memphis-style Barbecue -> Corky's: Pulled pork, beef brisket, roast turkey, damn good barbecue beans unheard of in Texas, and potato salad.
   
5. Dot's: L1 with cheese; mini burgers and fries made with crack and black magic.
   
6. Five Happiness: Beef teriyaki with peanut sauce, sizzling chicken, bean curd and beef, and white rice.
   
7. A poboy w00t!
   
8. Zea: Rotisserie beef, sweet potatoes, the best corn grits in the world (no lie), tomato basil soup.
   
9. A muffaletta
   
10. Crazy Johnny's
    
11. Roman Pizza
    
12. Rue de la Course
    
13. PJ's Coffee: Pumpkin pie chai, a granita, vanilla tea, cafe au lait, and a white hot chocolate.
    
14. Angelo Brocato's: Florintine, some sort of light cookie with icing and apple filling, tiramisu ice cream, and praline gelato. I cried a little, being here.
    

Coming home to New Orleans has been wonderful, as if a great pressure of unfamiliarity has been removed. Like the man who kept hitting himself on the head because of how good it felt when he stopped, it's good to be home again. I've spent this week back at home, surrounded by my friends and family, playing games and eating.

New Orleans is evocative and emotionally charging, even before the storm. I don't want to go into the negative now- this holiday season is about focusing on the positive.