Food porn, travel, and reading -- year end extravaganza

This is a very nice dinner J and I had out in mid December at Eclipse di Luna in Atlanta:

As you can see from the photos they choose to use on their website, it's a little business crowd Buckhead-y, but we didn't feel at all out of place in biking shoes and our normal (REI heavy schlubby) clothing. We had a halfoffdepot, but even without it, there was plenty of vegan selection, and the food was pretty delicious, so it was worth it.

It's been a veritable vegan food orgy in the San Francisco bay area: Souley Vegan in Oakland

is legitimately one of top ten favorite restaurants ever, of all time, no debate, no discussion. This is the "chicken fried steak" style tofu burger W got, which was insanely reminiscent of something you'd buy at Wendy's, yet actually tasted unbelievable. I could eat this every day.

And this is the before and after of my "choose 3" plate with aforementioned "chicken fried steak" style tofu, "mac and cheezy" and BBQ tofu. Res ipsa loquitor:    

This was the night after I had an INCREDIBLE (yes, J, it defied credibility) dinner with E & K at Burma Superstar in Alameda

In case you're wondering, those images are from the pedestrian "path" in the Posey Tube which connects Alameda and Oakland underneath the water. It was a moderately unpleasant walk: loud as shit, and the path is only about 3.5 to 4 feet wide, so had any other pedestrians or cyclists needed to pass me while i was walking precisely ten minutes from one end to the other, we would have contributed to the weird soot wipe-offs on the wall.

The only good shot I got of the Burma Superstar food is the fantastic fermented tea leaf salad:

I know, it sounds a little funky, but this was off the damn charts.

Then last night A and W and I had an AMAZING (yes, J, I was amazed) dinner at Gracias Madre in the Mission. In case you're wondering why I didn't link to the restaurant website, unfortunately, they're looking for a buyer and will be closing down. So figure it out and get there QUICK. The food is delicious. The only decent picture I got was of the "creamed" brussels sprouts and A's tamales:

Then today for lunch I tried to go to Gracias Madre's sister restaurant, also about to close, one of the Cafe gratitude locations, but it was packed to the gills, so I walked back into the Mission proper to Herbivore on Valencia.

When this super delicious seitan BBQ sandwich and the (!) vegan potato salad were one of the less astonishing dishes I've had in the last 72 hours, that's really saying something.

Okay, okay, enough with the food porn! (At least until I process and resize some more images.) Today on the Muni I added up all the books I've completed in 2011, and they amount to 3758 pages read (not counting the crappy ones I put down.)

Probably the best book I read: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.
Probably the worst book I finished: The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle.
Totally not even worth reading more than a quarter of: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. (Yep: sure, it was "witty" and "incisive". And also "profoundly mediocre" and no way I was going to read 576 pages of it.)

Another terrible picture of another delicious dish

This is the BBQ seitan sandwich at Herbivore in the Mission in San Francisco. Definitely not as good as Souley Vegan in Oakland (which is truly one of my ten favorite restaurants of all time) but very good nevertheless.

Xmas cheer. Sorta.

Twas the night before the night before Xmas, and all through the airport. Wait, that's not how that goes.

Here in Atlanta, it's the predictable scene: busy, frenzied travelers, bored, lazy TSA agents, and tons of kettles shocked that they have to remove their shoes. At the Sky Priority line, there was a dude never before seen, and likely never to be seen again, with a radio and a smile but no uniform, happily chatting up the 75 or so of us in the "priority" line, claiming "oh yeah, it's usually like this, maybe just a bit more for the holidays, but at least it's not out the door! It usually is!"

Ummmmmmm, no. It's not out the door, almost ever, at the south security checkpoint at ATL. What the hell are you talking about?

Okay, gotta go catch a flight. To sunny California!

Small Change

A emailed me this morning quoting a song from Tom Waits' album Small Change, which caused me to put this too-seldom played, incredible album on.

If you don't know it, I suggest you consider listening to the classic The Piano Has Been Drinking.

While I'm still getting used to blogger's new interface, I LOVE the new image interface, which to test, I uploaded this Mystery Picture taken near Alamosa, Colorado:



I love that you can now modify the images once uploaded by clicking on them to get a context menu.

The land? You'll be hearing more about it. Probably.

Blog Archive, by year

Sure looks like I had a lot of time on my hands in 2010. Sure didn't feel that way.

Always hit it with a hammer.

Well, so, that kinda sucked. But not quite as badly as it could have. Here's a long story about bikes, locks, and how I spent a couple of my hours last night.

It started when I rode my bike down to Whole Foods to buy some produce for dinner. My whip was the trusty Sitba. I locked Sitba up with my decade+ old Kryptonite U-lock, the combination model. Essentially an older version of this lock:

I've had it since long before I started law school, so... that's a while. No, it's not super high security, but I've long liked the combo lock, and visually it looks strong to non-pro bike thieves. In significant part, it's visual deterrence: a smart bike thief will skip over the U-lock and go for the cable lock most every time, unless they know bikes, and have plenty of time to spend on stealing.

From a user perspective, it's quick and easy.

Yeah, well, it's quick and easy until it gets stuck and you can't open it.

Basically, you turn the numbers to your combo, then push the button right to release the lock. The button was stuck. Really stuck. I tried and tried it, tried to leverage it with my bottle opener, tried every possible angle. No dice.

So I called J, who was riding home from elsewhere, and asked her to gather a bicycle liberation kit: the 4.5" angle grinder, extension cord, ear and eye protection. And kind of on a whim, a hammer. (Hey, why not, right?) And a printout of the spreadsheet I keep on the computer for insurance purposes, detailing our bikes including serial numbers, and hopefully the receipt for the bike. I also pull up a photo of myself on my phone with the bike, and if needed, once it's cut off, could pull out the seatpost and turn it upside down, and my business card (folded into quarters and taped) will fall out. Basically, conflict management with cops and security if J can't find the receipt or other clear proof I own the bike.

I then went in and explained to Employee A at customer service what I was going to do. Basically, make a big ol' loud hot mess right in front of their store. Employee A is totally cool with it: oh, and I can borrow their cutter, no, even better, she'll get someone to do it for me. I'm doubtful that they actually own an angle grinder in the store, but she gets Employee B, who clarifies that it's a set of bolt cutters, and he can't do it for me without me proving it's my bike, which I'm completely comfortable with, and it's kind of moot, since bolt cutters won't work anyway.

So Employee B gets Store Manager A, who is super sympathetic, agrees the bolt cutters won't work, and is highly enthusiastic about my angle grinder plan. Absolutely, anything he can do, of course I can plug in to their power outlet, yeah, sure! I say my wife is on the way, I'll let Store Security Guard A know when I'm about to do it. Sure! Great!

So I stand around outside for a while, keep messing with the lock, have a nice conversation with Homeless Guy A with a bike, who I'd given money to on my way in to the store. (I also gave money to another guy on my way out. Apparently good panhandler karma doesn't translate into good bike lock karma.) Homeless Guy A is chilling out at the outside tables in front of Whole Foods, which Parking Lot Security Guard A and Off Duty APD Cop A don't dig, so they hustle him out of there with a mix of fake friendliness and slightly cruel sarcasm. I glare from about ten feet away, but they ignore me. Probably for the better to avoid direct conflict, since I'm going to look like a bike thief in a few minutes.

J arrives, I go back inside and mention to Store Security Guard A what I'm about to do, and he's almost as enthusiastic as Store Manager A. (And doesn't bother to inquire whether I own the bike.)

First power outlet doesn't work, second one father away does, so while J is unraveling the 100' extension cord, I decide to bang at it with the hammer, mostly for fun. Two bangs on that nasty little button, and it opens up just fine.

So we collect our little middle class bike theft kit, I put the bike on the back of the car, and Store Security Guard A comes out to congratulate us, and tell us to have a good night.

The moral of the story? I dunno. Maybe that being a white middle class Whole Foods customer with power tools is a really effective modus operandi for being a bike thief? Or maybe: "always hit it with a hammer." Yeah. Maybe that.

Colorado beer, food porn, etc.

The important stuff, of course.

Our Colorado vacation included visits to four new breweries, as well as a return visit to an old friend, Wynkoop, and the previously posted Trinity Brewing Company in Colorado Springs.

San Luis Valley Brewing Company, Alamosa:

Denver Beer Company:

Strange Brewing Company, Denver, before:

Strange Brewing Company, Denver, after:

Tasty beer, and tasty food:

A terrible picture showing the incredibly tasty vegan buffalo wings, and a fun vegan poutine, at City O' City, Denver (sister restaurant to the always lovely Watercourse, where we had breakfast yesterday before flying out):

Unfortunately, they seriously upscaled City O' City and jacked up the prices. I'll still keep going for the wings, but it's a big disappointment.


We also did a fair bit of our own cooking when the hotel rooms provided for it. This is a pasta with fresh broccoli, green peppers, and fake chicken from Gardein. Tasty. The Full Sail Wassail and bourbon were nice too, since it was COLD. Like, really, seriously cold. -4 before windchill, with stiff winds.


This is at Root Down in Denver, which is fancy and somewhat spendy, but has some great happy hour specials (pdf), and all vegan items clearly marked on the menu. Vegans should make sure when they order the sweet potato fries (right) to get a dipping sauce other than the "Curry Lime Dunk" which has sour cream in it. Boo. The portobello slider (top) was tasty but a little too sweet, while the Edamame Hummus with fried wonton chips (left) was RIDICULOUSLY good.


This is a semi-artistic rendering of our drinks, including the $3 happy hour draft, Odell's Isolation Ale. J's Rosemary-Lavender Lemonade (left) was actually $2 more!


Root Down has these super cool "smart" toilets: after you do your business, you wash your hands in the sink on top, then it uses the gray water as the next flush. The only problem is that the temperature of the sink water is cold (granted, it's December in Denver) but it seems like this could easily be fixed by just plumbing it with warmer water.

And, since no good food porn post would be truly complete without: ONIONS! Before flying out, we knocked out a bunch of tofu and onions to make wraps:
Yes, it was a bit of a risk, since the last two times J and I have taken wraps through the ATL south security checkpoint, it has resulted in false positives for bomb residue. It didn't happen this time.

Incidentally, that's a Thomas Hardy 2005 in the wine glass in the background of the photo.

Okay, with all this blogging about food, maybe I should go buy some so we can have dinner tonight. Just food, though: here in Atlanta, we remain in the dark ages until January 1, 2012.

Denver Beer Company

Solid. Just, solid. The basic pale ale, Bunny Trail Pale Ale, is one of the best I've had in a long time.

Denver Beer Company

New favorite brewpub

At least in the top five: Trinity Brewing Company in Colorado Springs. Exciting beers, great people, shitty location, and some of the best vegan buffalo wings I've ever had.

Don't worry, A2, we're going to go update the vegan wings competition today at City O' City. We'll toast you!

J is a genius, again.

Toasting bagels with an iron for hotel room breakfast. (J gives credit to Top Chef for this surprisingly effective technique.)

Yep, we're rocking it super classy style here at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, in the shadow of NORAD. Hey, it was Priceline, okay?

Vintage, indeed.

The  Vintage Resort Hotel  in Winter Park, Colorado. Putting the vintage back in vintage.

We sat in the outdoor hot tub last might when it was 4 degrees, then ran like hell for the indoor dry sauna. Priceless!

Google+ = SUCK, Part Deux

Following up on the preceding post, this asshat spamming me through Google+ is what led to it:

I still haven't figured out a way to block someone from my "circle" without first joining Google+. Lame. Suggestions welcome.

Well, I'll make it all feel better by going skiing in Colorado with J. We leave tomorrow. Yay! Time to pack.