House of Dioxin

gimme the bridge now

2012-05-18T01:37:27Z

So I'm feeling every one of my years tonight. Just got an invitation to my best friend's daughter's graduation. Y'know, I remember going to say with Pru when she was on bed-rest at the end of that pregnancy and Mr. J had to go outta town for work (ah, the marginally employed days of my early 90s). Anyway, any of y'all with kids probably get constant reminders of this but for the childless, these events in other people's children's lives are sorta like punctuated equilibrium nudges that, yes, time is passing whether we notice it or not.
In other news, even though I'm not reading George R. R. Martin (or watching Game of Thrones), I loved this post on how seasons might work in Westeros. The funny thing is that after I saw the headline of the post but before I got around to reading it, I was thinking about irregular orbits. Which isn't actually right but it could be considered wrong headed in the right direction.
Finally, shout out to the great Chuck Brown, who died yesterday. Here's a track he did with Thievery.

not wearing a flag or a baby

2012-05-15T03:26:33Z

Check this out. It's Lego Inferno. That is pretty damn impressive. Obviously inspired by Dante but not a direct interpretation. In fact, in the interview on the site there, he says that he didn't read any of the Divine Comedy, just the brief descriptions of the circles of hell on wiki. Which, honestly, could have resulted in his art being really facile and superficial. But I think he's done some impressive work. Plus, y'know, Legos

go to heaven where the dinosaurs are

2012-05-14T02:34:29Z

Today was the final day of matches in the EPL. Which Fox Soccer apparently felt stateside futbol fans wouldn't be able to appreciate unless they gave it a ~~stupid~~ special name -- Survival Sunday. As far as I can tell exactly no one in the UK says that (and more power to 'em). Anyway, we were watching Spurs v. Fulham. I haven't really started following Spurs but I'm leaning that way. Plus I always like to check in and see what Dempsey's up to at Fulham. But the game was pretty much wrapping up and I was following the Guardian MBM of City v. QPR and wondering why none of the Fox stations (they'd commandeered at least 3 of their channels to show matches) seemed to have it on. Finally thought to check the cable guide to find that it was on ESPN2. Missed Joey Barton's "John Terry moment" and subsequent meltdown and really thought I was just watching City's chance at the title slip away. Then this happened. Sweet jumping Maradona, that was five of the craziest minutes of futbol I've ever seen. There was a moment, after Dzeko tied it up but before Aguero got the winner, where the camera panned the crowd. Just after a throw-in was awarded to QPR, I think. And they caught this City fan in the stands just turning around and smacking the back of his chair with his sweater or jacket or whatever it was he had in his hands. Really the perfect capsule moment of the horrible, nerve-wracking powerlessness of fandom. When you want something to happen so desperately but there's nothing at all you can do to actually make it happen.

got a hole in my head and there's no one to fix it

2012-05-12T02:24:22Z

First off, here's the setlist from the Elvis Costello & the Imposters show at DPAC.
Here's an interesting article about some jamoke trying to shake down Teller. Not sure if I'd say it's their best trick but it's a great moment in the show. I mean, yeah, okay this guy figured out how to do the trick. Fabu. Altho, according to Penn in that clip that's imbedded w/ the article, it may not be that tough to figure out a way to do the trick. But he pretty much loses all his fabu points when he starts demanding money from Penn & Teller or else he'll post a video spoiling the trick. That, my friends, is a dick move. Major, major dick move.
Hats definitely back on.

wires coming up from around the block

2012-05-10T03:32:10Z

Also back at the end of April was the long-delayed Elvis Costello show. He was originally scheduled to be in Durham back in September of last year but the end of the tour got cancelled due to some kind of family medical situation. I don't remember know but I think it was that his father was in the hospital. Anyway, the dates were rescheduled and not only that but Durham ended up being the last night of the US tour. Which might account for the "extra" 20 minutes (the pre-show info said the show was scheduled to end at 10.10 but it actually ran to 10.30. And it was quite the extravaganza. This was another of the "spinning songbook" shows and there is, in fact, a giant wheel on stage and Costello or one of his minions would go out into the audience and pick someone to come up on stage and spin the wheel and then they'd play whatever came up. Some of the wheel spaces were songs ("Country Darkness") but others were blocks of songs (a set from Get Happy! or a set of songs with "time" in the title. Plus a joker space (spinners gets to pick anything, on or off wheel). And Elvis has turned into quite the showman (which didn't surprise me, having seen him on Colbert several times, esp. the Xmas special). So lots of stories (including ones about Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry and Nick Lowe) and a bit of dancing and lots of witty banter. Things started with a bang. Well, actually they started with a song I didn't recognize but then they ripped thru "Heart of the City" (which I last heard performed live by Rockpile in Albany, NY about 30 years ago), "Mystery Dance" and "Radio Radio" Another highlights for me was the start of the encore set which was just Costello acoustic and solo. For one tune he even switched to ukulele and at a couple of points he stepped away from the mic completely and played and sang unamplified. Oh, and he also interpolated a bit of "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" into the end of "Jimmie Standing in the Rain." To wrap up the pre-encore potion of the show, they brought out the song hammer. Which was a short version of one of those strength test things where you swing a hammer and if you hit hard enough, you make the bell ring. Of course, since it's a shortened tower, all three hit the bell and got to pick the last three songs, which were "My Funny Valentine" (surprising), "Alison" (of course), and "Everyday I Write the Book" (not one of my faves but they did an amazing job with it). I should mention here that Costello's current band, the Imposters, includes Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve, so that was awesome. Apparently, Costello and Bruce Thomas, bassist from the Attractions do not get along. So much so that when Elvis & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Thomas did go onstage w/ the band to be inducted but did not play w/ the band. And, when asked, Costello is reported to have said that he only wanted to play with professional musicians. Anyway. one other thing I noticed was that, because they were using the wheel, the encore set didn't really build like a "normal" set. The first final spins landed on two jackpots and "Clubland." The jackpots were "time" and "girl" and Elvis said "we know a lot of songs with time in the title." They did four and also two "girl" songs, including "Girls Talk" (hey, it's another song I heard at that Rockpile show). Plus while that was going on, two more people came up and spun, adding two more songs. And then they played "(What's So Funny) 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding" and that really was the high point of the night. I seriously could have left completely happy and satisfied at that point. Then they played "Pump It Up" and by now pretty much everyone was on their feet, even up in the balcony. In case you were wondering, second row balcony is not at all conducive to any sort of dancing in the aisles. And then, probably because they'd had to learn it (cos it was on the wheel) and it was the last night of the tour, dammit, they played "Please Please Me" to finish up. An amazing show. And I think, at this point (and between shows I saw back in the day and acts I've caught up with lately) that I've now seen all of my personal pantheon of big stars from the 80s.

well that sucks

2012-05-09T03:17:07Z

Interrupting the usual chat about music and food and fun stuff like that to mention, by the way, that it extremely sucks that NC (my home for the last 15 years) just passed this heinous amendment to the state constitution saying that marriage between a man and woman is the only legally recognized union. That's a paraphrase but I think it captures what's going on. Which is that apart from isolated pockets like the Triangle, Asheville and Charlotte (and one lonely county way down SE -- I need to figure out what's down there... Beaufort, maybe?) voters rolled in like 60/40 in favor. So fucking embarrassing. Lots of interesting points being brought up around the intertubes. One that I liked pointed out that, if people were confused by the amendment, that was not an accident. The suggestion being that it was written the way it was to confuse voters and make it harder to campaign against. And there does seem to be polling that supports the idea that some voters did not understand that the amendment will also ban heterosexual civil unions, etc.
One of the most interesting takes on amendment 1 that I saw suggested that pro-1 backers had succeeded in framing the issue as "religion under siege" and "traditional values under attack." This, on one level, is the same lowgrade bullshit as the perpetual whining of Fox News. You know, the war on xmas, war on this, that and the other damn thing. The stuff Colbert is so good at mocking. You have only to look at an NC voting map and see the small pockets of "No" voting counties surrounded by swathes of "Yes" counties to draw your own conclusions about who is and isn't under siege.
But in a weird way, they're right. I mean, they're right for the wrong reasons and they don't understand why they're right. It's not that there's some army of "others" set to destroy America. We're not laying siege to America. We are America. What's laying siege to them is reality and its well-known liberal bias. And they don't like it. As Chuck D said, it's fear of a black planet.
The problem, of course, is that shit like amendment one is very real and can do a lot of harm. It's like they know they're on the way out, so they're just gonna fuck shit up while they can.
And before this gets any more depressing, I'll leave you with this point to ponder (something we were kicking around on facebook tonight): is the "yes on one" vote worse than sending Jesse Helms to the Senate five times? I kinda think it is. Honestly, Helms probably was more of a destructive force in the world. But this is more of a personal slap in the face to friends of mine. Plus, it's the 21st century for fuck's sake. Maybe the arc of history could bend towards justice a little faster.

when i'm in holland i eat the pannenkoeken

2012-05-08T02:01:26Z

This just in: apparently my facial hair which I always think of as a goatee (altho I think technically it's a Van Dyke, but whatever) and which I've had since the early/mid 90s is some kind of hideous trademark infraction. At least according to some Russian guy. I guess I probably shouldn't post a picture of myself here since I just linked to the NYTimes which linked to that guy and I don't want to end up with a C&D getting slapped on my face.
Hilarity ensues.
Back at the end of last month, we went to an amazing performance by the John Brown Big Band at the Cotton Room. They were performing Ellington's suite "Such Sweet Thunder." Ever since we saw video of Ellington performing "Such Sweet Thunder" (at a jazz festival in France in the early 1960s, I think), Sarah and I have both been big fans of the suite. And as there's exactly no chance of seeing Ellington perform it, we were not going to miss a performance right here in town. We hadn't seen Brown perform previously but of course knew who he was. And the evening did not disappoint. The Cotton Room (at Golden Belt) is a gorgeous space. Maybe not the ideal space for a concert (chairs not so comfy and AC vents blowing right on several rows of seating) but the acoustics seemed fine, at least to my untrained ear. The show was set up with intros to each piece by a prof. from Duke, who talked about how the Ellington composition related to the Shakespeare play which inspired it, often down to the musical lines following sonnet form. I thought it was pretty interesting (perhaps that's the English major in me; Sarah was somewhat less into it). Also they had actors from the NC Shakespeare Festival performing passages from the plays. Mostly quite well. One or two didn't seem quite at the same level as the others and there were a few scenes where an otherwise good actor was just not well suited to the role they were reading. Let's face it, the same actor is probably not going to be right as Lear and Oberon and Falstaff and Shylock. Overall a fun addition to the evening. But it was the music we were there for and it was awesome. The band was cooking all night. I especially enjoyed "Up and Down" and "Half the Fun" which I hadn't been as familiar with going in. Along with, of course "Star Crossed Lovers" and "Such Sweet Thunder." After they'd played the suite, the band took an intermission, then came back and jammed on a couple of Ellington tunes, including one that neither Sarah and I had ever even heard of before, "Pie Eye's Blues." They tore it up from the floor up. Definitely check 'em out if you get the chance.

get on the mic, my man

2012-05-05T02:21:52Z

I definitely did not expect to get online this afternoon and see that MCA had died. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said elsewhere and more eloquently. Speaking as someone looking at 47 fading in the rearview I will agree that that's way too young to be dying. Or: fuck cancer, as several people have said in several places. For a second, I misremembered and thought that MCA had been on Top Chef Just Desserts last year but that was Adrock. And I don't want to talk about how long I've been listening to Beastie Boys cos that gets a little music-geek "you damn kids" sounding. Which is never good but esp. now is not the tone I'm looking for. Instead, I'll just post a video. Alas, one of my fave tracks ("Putting Shame in Your Game") doesn't have a video and there's only crappy live versions on youtube. Instead, let's go with this. If I had to pick one definitive Beastie Boys cut, it'd be this one. Plus bonus Vegas footage (I believe that's the Desert Inn they're hanging around)

not good at knowing stuff

2012-05-04T03:02:50Z

Early voting for the NC primary ends on Saturday (and it's only a half-day on Saturday) so I got myself downtown after work tonight and voted. I was kinda hoping that there'd be someone leafleting for "yes on 1" so I could frankly exchange some ideas with them. But of course there wasn't. Maybe on weekends they've had someone there (the Board of Elections office which is the main early voting site) but I wouldn't think the "yes on 1" crowd would be wasting whatever moneys they've got on Durham. I've got to imagine they're expecting to lose big in places like Durham, Chapel Hill, Asheville and plan to make it up in the more rural parts of the state. Which is both an unfairly broad statement about the people who live in those parts of NC (I'm sure there are lots of "no" voters outside of the cities) but also probably an accurate description of what's going to happen. I did have a nice chat with the person leafleting for "no on 1" and she said she thought it was gonna be close. I think there's a chance of a close victory. It'd be nice to win big but I think we're still a few years away from that happening.
Unrelated but helpful (and hilarious) advice on how to get more folks to "like" your stuff on social media. Definitely more tanks.

starting to use bees to fight crime

2012-05-03T02:20:29Z

One of the more unpleasant discoveries of the week-so-far is that apparently there remains yet some uncrushed part of my soul in the midst of all the cynicism. It must be so because I'm finding that, as used as I am by now to spin and distortion and all the wow and flutter of politics, I'm still really taken aback by the amount of bald-faced lying that's going on. And it's barely fucking May! I mean, seriously. If people are just gonna be flat-out lying about shit for the rest of the year, I do not know how I will get thru to the election. Perhaps drinking heavily and donating more money.
But enough of that (see: it's barely even May yet). Here's something awesome. It's a nice overview (in the form of a top ten list) of changes in our views of dinosaurs. I'm sure there are many (altho not too many readers of this blog) who will look at the "before" pictures on that list as ancient history, people who never learned that, say, T. Rex looked like that. But I'm old so even tho I've kept up casuallly with dino news (enough at least to have seen the "new" versions of several of that list), it was still sorta nostalgic to see the "before" pictures. Reminded me of my trips to the Smithsonian and the Museum of Natural History back when I was a kid.

gather together and pretend that you're happy

2012-05-02T02:30:19Z

One last SF story. I know, I know, it's already May and I said I'd be finished up with the trip reports before April ended. But this is only partly a trip report. Most of it is stuff I learned after I got back. So, Monday while I was walking along the Embarcadero, one of the things I was taking pictures of was Coit Tower. And at some point (I think it was when I was passing Fog City Diner) I noticed that there was a building further down the hill which had these huge letters on its side that spelled out "Julius' Castle."

That's the sorta thing that catches your eye. Well, it caught mine at any rate. I had to zoom way the hell in to get a shot where you could actually make out the words so it's a little blurry. Anyway, after I got home and was looking thru my pics I got to wondering just what exactly the deal was. Here's the best write-up I found on Julius' Castle. Short version: it was a restaurant. Unfortunate emphasis on was. Even though this 2009 story suggests a happy ending that was almost 3 years ago and the place is still empty, still looking for someone to rent or buy it. There was a story from last year that darkly implied the current owner was angling for demolition by neglect. I'd like to think that since the exterior is landmarked, there'd be some way to stop that but I'm sure there's only so much that preservation groups can keep up with.

never heard such idiotness

2012-04-28T01:41:47Z

Like I said, yesterday, the downside of wandering around in SOMA on that Monday is that I was wiped the hell out and didn't really feel up to doing anything after lunch. But there were two positives: one, while walking around I stumbled across this coffee truck, Curbside Coffee, parked on a side street. Got a good cup of coffee (which, as I see from that article linked above, isn't a surprise as they have Peet's background) and one of my fave questions of the trip, when the guy at Curbside asked me if I wanted a frequent customer card. Hey, they're on a side street in the financial district. I'm sure they don't get too many random tourists just wandering by. Also, when he asked me that I said that, no, I didn't cos I was from out of town, alas. Which he misheard and followed up when he handed me my coffee by asking if I'd said I was from Alaska. And he looked so puzzled when I said that I was from North Carolina. I probably looked just as puzzled. I'd walked a couple of blocks on before I managed to piece together how that exchange had actually worked.
The second good thing about that schlep was that I managed to find the Deli Board, this crazy good sandwich place I'd read about on Serious Eats. It wasn't that far of a walk from the conference hotel (at least it didn't look that far on google maps) but I'm never 100% sure I'll be able to find something from map directions until, y'know, I've actually found it. If that makes any sense. But since Sarah didn't have a long time for lunch, I didn't want us to be walking around trying to find the place. Probably a good thing. It was easy to find but had no signage out front. Altho the long line out the door was a dead giveaway. We each had a sammich (altho we easily could have split one as they are HUGE). Sarah had one that had brisket, cheddar, some kind of special "board" sauce. Had a bite of that and it was excellent. Mine was a somewhat odd mix of kosher salami, cheese (provolone, maybe? I don't remember) and chicken salad. It was hot on top (some of the cheese had melted) but cool on the bottom. A strange combo but really good. Also, they're using good bread for their sandwiches so that's a plus too.
For dinner, we wanted something that was easy to get to from the hotel (on Muni or BART line or walking distance and that we couldn't get back home. Among our candidates were this Thai place on the edge of the Tenderloin that's supposed to rank up there with Lotus of Siam (in Vegas) and a Yucatecan Mexican place in the Mission. One of the things we'd been thinking about for Saturday when we thought we'd get in with time to do some stuff, was izakaya, cos there's nothing like that in NC. But all the places I'd read up on were either way out near Golden Gate Park or closed on Monday or both. But while poking around for ideas in the afternoon, I read about a ramen restaurant that got raves and was also (bonus!) close to the hotel. Again, ramen shops very thin on the ground in NC. Lots of yammering on Yelp about how long the wait would be and how rude the service was. The restaurant is tiny (under 10 tables, I'm sure). They had a signup sheet outside the door and some of the staff were pretty brusque about making sure everyone knew to sign in and wait outside. But the worst I'd say is "harried" and certainly not rude. Pleasant but business-like and trying to keep things moving. In a place that small, they really have no choice. I'm sure at busier times (that is, not on a Monday at 6.30), it gets pretty slammed. Anyway, the only ramen I'd ever had was packets o' instant from the grocery so to say that Katana-Ya was a revelation is understating by a lot. Like I said, much online chatter about how it's not the best in the city or how it compares negatively to ramen you can get in Vancouver. All I can say is that I thought it was pretty damn good. If ramen in Vancouver is orders of magnitude better than Katana-Ya then clearly we need to get to Vancouver.

(And that mostly wraps up the SF trip report. There's one more story-ish thing but it's actually something I learned after I was back home and I was sorting thru my pictures)

there are no fire hydrants in the ocean

2012-04-26T02:30:54Z

My Monday in San Francisco mostly involved walking. Sarah's conference started that day so I was knocking around on my own. I started off down at the Ferry Bldg. We'd really wanted to go to the farmer's market there but it ends at 2pm on Saturday so even if our flight hadn't been delayed we wouldn't have gotten into town in time. But I took the quick BART ride over to check it out. Lots of tempting looking food options inc. Boccalone (Cosentino's salumi shop) and Cowgirl Creamery and a Traci Des Jardin taqueria. I ended up getting a breakfast sammich from Prather Meats and a café au lait from Blue Bottle. Super food geek alert! Super good, tho.
I hadn't really come up with a plan for after that so I just started walking along the Embarcadero. Seeing the sights, as it were. One of my favorites sights was just this guy who rode past on his bicycle. Okay, there's a bit more to it than that. I was walking along and it was a fairly quiet stretch of road and there wasn't any traffic passing. From behind me, I hear clapping. Not applause but rhythmic on-the-beat clapping. I look back and there's this guy coming along the Embarcadero, riding a bike, wearing headphones. And he's letting go of the handlebars to clap along with whatever he's listening to. Basically just bopping along, totally grooving to the music. Clapping, head nodding, fist pumping. While riding a bike at a pretty good clip. Well played, crazy Bay Area cyclist guy.
Anyway, I got about as far as the aquarium (almost to Fisherman's Wharf) when I decided to turn around and head back. Stopped at the Ferry Bldg on my way past to get another coffee but the line this time was about 3x as long as it had been earlier. Clearly locals and tourists do not rise early in SF. So what I should have done next is get back on BART to go back to Union Square where the hotel hosting Sarah's conference was at. But instead I decided to walk over, which basically took me thru a pretty uninteresting section of SoMa and added about another hour of walking in the sunniest part of the day. Basically wiped me out so after lunch I just poked around Union Square area for a bit then went back to the hotel and crashed for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe not the best planned out day of travel/vacation but mostly fun. And I took a lot of pictures.

next: final SF food report (sammiches, ramen, more donuts)

take a chicken away for summer vacation

2012-04-23T00:53:39Z

Three weeks ago (yes, I know, this trip report is taking for-frikking-ever), we had dinner at Incanto. When Sarah told me she was going to this conference in SF and we figured out that I'd be able to go out for a couple of days as well, one of the first things I suggested was going to Incanto. I'm not generally planning restaurant decisions based on the celebrity status of the chef. On the other hand, we've had some really amazing meals at "celeb" restaurants at various levels (Craft, Morimoto, Olives -- altho it's almost not fair to include Vegas because half of everything out there is a celebrity restaurant). But, anyway, we've watched Cosentino on Food Network and read about Incanto and it just seemed like someplace we had to try. And Sunday night was the only real option. I guessed right that we'd be too wiped after traveling to really do justice to a high-end dinner. Fortunately, they're open on Sundays and I was able to get a reservation. For the record, Cosentino was not at the restaurant that night. We took the Muni out (they're right on the line) which was fun cos we got on at one of the subway stops but by the time we got out to Noe Valley, where the restaurant is, the line had come above ground into streetcar mode. Got to see some other neighborhoods.
The restaurant was crowded but not super mobbed. The tables for two along the wall were packed in pretty tight but that's really the norm pretty much everywhere it seems. I understand that the couple on my right (Sarah's left) were having a pretty entertaining conversation about how none of their friends were cool enough to come with them to a place like Incanto but I missed most of that cos my ears were kinda plugged up from the flying on Saturday. There was a bit of confusion right when we sat down. The hostess seated us and I don't remember if our server had even made it over to the table when this guy (I think another waiter but I'm not sure) came over, made some remark about our server that seemed to suggest she'd fucked up in some unspecified way and then asked us if we wanted any wine. At that point, I'd barely glanced at the wine list and hadn't even found the beer and wines by the glass yet. I felt really on the spot so I babbled something about how we didn't want a bottle and I would have a glass later and he took the wine list and the glasses and huffed away. Well, he probably didn't huff but the whole thing seemed weird. And I don't think it was just me because when our server did come over just a moment or two later she seemed very confused by the fact that someone else had been there and taken the wine glasses away.
Anyway, that was the only discordant moment of the evening. From there on, everything was wonderful. Bread plate included grissini, focaccia, a rustic ciabatta sorta loaf and some olive tapenade that was so good it made me revise my previously low opinion of olive tapenade. We decided to share all three courses. Having eaten our way thru the Mission that morning, we didn't think we'd be able to get thru a multi-course meal each and we wanted to make sure we got something from each course. Started out with a salad of strawberries, fava beans, and pecorino. Light and refreshing (which turned out to be a good thing). There was another appetizer that had strawberries and lardo. That probably would have been more amazing than this but we were trying not to eat ourselves sick. As a side note, when I went and looked at the Incanto site just now to get the link to include here, the sample menu they have posted is from April 11 and it's almost completely different from the menu we had just 10 days earlier. The strawberry and fava salad changed to a radish and fava salad. I'm pretty sure the tuna heart pasta dish was on the menu when we were there but none of the other pastas look familiar. And all the mains seem changed as well.
Our pasta course was mint papardelle with oxtail ragu. That was about as adventurous as we got with our ordering. There were a couple of options that we considered but passed on because they had an ingredient one or the other of us didn't like (oysters, etc). And that's fine because the dish we ordered was my favorite course of the night. Alas, no photo. I forgot to bring my camera and Sarah's shot didn't turn out.
(this is getting long -- rest of the meal write-up below the cut)

]]> One of the reasons I wanted to try the mint pasta/oxtail ragu is that I'd heard good things about this mint pasta dish that Batali has on the menu at Babbo (I think that one is a filled pasta w/ lamb). And it was outstanding. The pasta was some of the best I've ever had. The mint was present and pleasant without being too in-your-face. And the oxtail? OMG. So good. Oxtail has the kinda fatty, kinda gelatinous quality. I think that's the course where I wondered if it would be considered rude to pick up the bowl and lick up the last bits of sauce. (I did not, of course)
Note on the pasta course: Incanto had just finished up a special "snout-to-tail" week and they still had a couple of those items on as specials. I was tempted by a pig skin 'pasta' which involved pig skin which had been boiled and manipulated in such a way that it ended up like pasta. But Sarah wasn't convinced and, really, who knows if I'd have liked it. And if not, I'd have been left with this bowl of pork skin to chow thru. Cos I don't believe you can order something like that and then send it back if you squeamish out when it hits the table. If you're gonna order something adventurous like that, you have to be committed to eating it.
Main course: duck leg w/ artichoke, carrot, fennel. Again, just stupid delicious. The duck was confit (or whatever the Italian version of that is). And there was this broth which we didn't make note of so now I don't remember but it was incredible. Again, we're in lick the bowl territory. One of the reasons we picked the duck entree was that it seemed to be one of the lighter options. Hopefully we'll have another chance to eat at Incanto and it won't be on a day when we've already consumed quiche and donuts and croissants and lemon bars. Then we can order whatever without trying to avoid the richer sounding items on the menu. On the other hand, the duck was excellent so what does it matter?
Dessert: foie gras budino. Okay, so this was probably the most adventurous thing we ordered. We were leaning that way but undecided so we asked our server and her eyes lit up and she launched into a very detailed and enthusiastic explanation of what the dessert was and how it was made. (Generally, I think it's a good idea to order anything the staff is extra enthusiastic about) Basically the foie is steeped in milk and that milk is used to make the budino. There was maple caramel corn (which I think also had some foie involved) and red and green strawberries (and I think the green strawberries were also maple infused somehow). Really unbelievably good. And insanely rich. So all the lighter choices earlier in the meal really paid off cos I'm pretty sure if we'd eaten too much more in the earlier courses we wouldn't have felt up to a foie dessert. And I would've hated to have missed out on this.
So, yeah, Incanto was definitely a food geek highlight.
Up next: Monday -- sandwiches, walking, and ramen

water stuff is insane

2012-04-21T02:20:35Z

Like I said the other day, the range of murals that we saw was pretty impressive. And we only had time to see a portion of what was on the map. No telling how much other art is out there that's gone up since the last time the map was updated. Or what might have been missed or fall outside their cataloging. Anyway, themes included: anti-gentrification, Mexican cinema history, Maurice Sendak, the Arab Spring, And lots of decorative stuff as well. But I think the single most impressive thing that day was this public school

That's the Cesar Chavez Elementary School. It was kinda breath-taking. I knew that Chavez was hugely important (I just looked it up and his birthday is a state holiday). But years of having rightwing talking points shoved in my face 24/7 and living in a "right to work cheap" caused me to forget that there are still places where union leaders and civil rights activists are heroes. I guess Durham has the Pauli Murray murals but that's on a much smaller scale.