Thursday, March 24, 2011

worthy investment?

I was watching TV in our family room the other day, when I noticed D had been wrestling with something in the kitchen sink for awhile. I asked him what he was doing and he showed me that one of our small Corningware bowls had gotten wedged into one of our larger Corningware bowls. He'd tried using soap (didn't help), knives (too thick), cardboard (still too thick!), and some other solutions, but had been unable to dislodge the bowls. I thought for a couple of minutes, and finally decided to see if heat would do the trick. I boiled some water, put the larger bowl in the pot until it was too hot to touch, took it out (using dish rags), and then banged it against the counter, making sure the rags would soften the impact. Bingo!

On the way out, I remarked to D that it appeared my very expensive engineering education was good for something after all.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Siem Reap, Cambodia (2008)

We had an early morning flight to Siem Reap, so we were down to breakfast by 7am. Everything went smoothly except we were a bit surprised by the departure tax; luckily it was only $6 per person. Despite it only being a 35 minute flight, Siem Reap Airways served us a cucumber and egg sandwich, fruits, and juice. I had a little scare onboard when I discovered my hands were shaking and thought I was getting sick, but then D pointed out it was likely the four cups of delicious coffee that I had had with breakfast. Oops.

We were checked into our hotel, La Maison D'Angkor, well before noon. The hotel staff was happy to arrange a tuk-tuk driver for us for the rest of the day (12-6pm) for $15. For lunch we had the driver take us to Shadow of Angkor, where the food was okay but the fresh watermelon juice were delicious.

Afterwards we started on the temples. First we went to the gigantic Angkor Thom, where we saw the famous Bayon with the giant faces:


Afterwards we proceeded to the Baphuon, the Terrace of Elephants, and the Terrace of the Leper King. I was most impressed with the Bayon; the Baphuon seemed like it was in worse shape, and it took us awhile to find the elephants, as they were not well marked:



From there we went to Ta Prohm and Phnom Bapkeng. Ta Prohm was my favorite; it's known as the jungle temple because there are giant trees growing all over it. I think it was also used to film part of the first Lara Croft movie.



Phnom Bapkeng was primarily popular with tourists because it offers a nice view of Angkor Wat at sunset. I was not that impressed with the view there, but I could have been biased because of the huge crowds.


We started again the next day at 4:30am in order to try to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We got there at 5:45am which was in plenty of time, but we still had to jostle for position among all of the tour groups and other early risers.


After sunrise, we stuck around and explored Angkor Wat for several hours, before driving out to Banteay Srei (we'd hired a car for the day for 55 USD), which is loosely translated as "citadel of women". I liked it very much; it was small but full of beautiful intricate carvings.


We also visited Kbal Spean, which is a site consisting of lots of stone lingas (phallic symbols) around a river. It required some hiking (35-40 minutes) to get to the carvings, and I wasn't too impressed by the carvings, but apparently they are notable because there are so many of them.

The driver that we'd hired turned out to speak English pretty well, which was an unexpected bonus. He gave a running commentary during the long drives, from which we actually learned a lot. For instance, it sounded like there was a lot of foreign investment in Cambodia (mostly Vietnamese and Korean) which meant that the locals weren't profiting that much from all the tourism. A daily wage of 1-2 USD was considered "good". He also had some comments about local politics which were over my head, and took us off the main roads to show us some traditional houses and villages (more like clusters of houses).


When we got back to the Siem Reap area, we went to Preah Khan and Neak Pean. The first was great; there were endless rectangular doors and tons of carvings. I remarked to D that it felt like it could have been computer-generated (which he thought was super geeky of me). Neak Pean consists of four "healing ponds" with an island in the center. It was nice to look at (and nearly deserted!) but I hear that it is much cooler when the ponds are full.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2008)

I'm starting up again with the transcription of my old travel journals, with our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam in spring 2008.

We flew to Phnom Penh through Taipei so we had time for some Taiwanese snacks during our three-hour layover. We arrived shortly after noon and took a $9 taxi to the Pavilion Hotel. We tried to get some local money from the ATM but it dispensed US dollars! We were a little annoyed that we'd just paid extra fees to get the same money we could have brought from home, but laughed it off. We soon discovered that everyone did in fact accept USD and in fact gave change in USD, except for very small amounts, which were returned not in US coins but in paper "riel". The accepted conversion rate was 4000:1.

The hotel was quite nice, with decent air conditioning and solar panel heated water. The bathroom was new and clean. There were also prominent signs stating that sex tourists were not welcome. I guess it must be a pretty bad problem in Cambodia. There was a funny incident where D tipped the bellboy $1 for carrying our four bags; he was worried that it was too little, but realized it must have been too much as the boy was profusely grateful and was super eager to help us during the rest of our stay.

We left the hotel at 2pm to do some sightseeing...big mistake. It was very hot (probably mid-90s) and very humid. We went to the National Museum and Royal Palace, hoping for some time indoors, but were more impressed with the gardens than the (non air-conditioned) exhibits. We had some trouble finding the "silver pagoda" which turned out not to be silver.

National Museum:



Royal Palace:




For dinner we went to a restaurant called Khmer Borune. We ordered three dishes:
- lakh lakh beef: cubed chunks of beef with onions and tomatoes, served with vinegar-y sour pepper sauce, very good
- nataing pork: my favorite, cooked with coconut curry and served over crispy rice cakes
- palm sugar fish: served with a caramelized sauce (I didn't try it)


For dessert we were given free mangos, plus we ordered Khmer cake, which was also yummy; it seemed to have been made with coconut and maybe mung bean. Overall we were quite happy with our meal, and had a fun time chatting with a neighboring couple from New Mexico who had just returned from Siem Reap and gave us some useful tips, such as the going rate for tuk-tuks ($2).

After eating, we walked to the supermarket to get water, since we were still dehydrated despite drinking tons of water at dinner. Everyone seemed to cross the street completely haphazardly, so navigating the street after dark was a bit of an adventure. The streets were also a little sketchy looking, but luckily we didn't have far to walk to get back to our hotel.

The next day we were slightly jetlagged so we were up by 6am. We got ready in time to have an excellent free continental breakfast. My favorite item was the delicious fresh passionfruit juice with lots of crunchy seeds; it was a little bit like drinking pearl milk tea. The coffee was also very good, and there were baguettes and a nutty bread, served with fresh fruit, jams and good butter. Around 8am we started walking towards Wat Phnom.


It was about a 25-minute walk, but the weather was much nicer in the morning so we didn't mind. The wat itself was not spectacular but rather charming. The caretakers were very friendly and smiled at us a lot.






Afterwards we grabbed a tuk-tuk to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which chronicles a lot of the atrocities that occurred during the Khmer Rouge regime.


It was sad and depressing but educational and I guess worth seeing.



We decided against going to the Killing Fields though; we'd had enough history by then and the tuk-tuk drivers were a little too eager to take us there. We got lunch at the adjacent Boddhi Tree Umma where the service was excellent and the (Western-style) food was fairly tasty. We had a nice conversation with an older American couple there who were living in Cairo. After eating we grabbed another tuk-tuk back to the hotel to hide out during the hottest hours of the day.

For dinner, we ate at a restaurant called "Friends" which is also a training program for street children. The food was good and we were hungry so we had a lot of it: sweet potato fries with chili mango sauce, pork and beef meatballs with rice, mango salad with sesame and peppers, "fish" cakes with rice noodles (refreshing!), and Cambodian chicken curry (good but generic). The portion sizes were large for tapas and we couldn't finish, but it was reasonably priced at $18.50 total, especially given that part of the proceeds were going to the training program.

We finally made it to the Russian Market after dinner, but we were less than impressed; the silk goods weren't of very high quality, and the sculptures and trinkets struck me as cheesy. There was an open air food court of sorts behind the market, where lots of locals were snacking, but there were tons of flies, so despite our usual affinity for street food, we passed.

On the way home we were stopped a block away by a police barricade. We couldn't figure out why until we saw a huge wedding next door to our hotel. They were playing surprisingly modern music (lots of guitar), and there were hundreds of guests, dozens of police cars, and everything was decorated elaborately with lots of flowers.

rerun sadness

Over the summer I became obsessed with How I Met Your Mother and started watching reruns like mad. In the beginning it was great; pretty much every episode was new to me, and I could watch them back-to-back for days. After a few months, I could only find a new episode about every week.

About a month ago, I stopped finding any new episodes at all. It took awhile to dawn on me that maybe I'd already seen *all* the episodes. Yesterday I went and read through the entire list of five seasons of episodes and confirmed that yes, I've seen all of them. Boo.

(The last "new old" episode I watched was Slapsgiving. Hilarious.)

Saturday, March 05, 2011

The Restaurant at Meadowood

Last weekend, D and I drove up to St. Helena to have dinner at the newest Michelin three-star restaurant, The Restaurant at Meadowood.

Along the way, we stopped at the ferry building for lunch and got an amazing cheeseburger from the 4505 Meats stand and a fatty pork sandwich from Il Cane Rosso.

We made further stops at Bouchon Bakery for macarons, and Oxbow Public Market, where we cobbled together the next day's breakfast: sausages from The Fatted Calf, baguettes from The Model Bakery, and Appalachian and Midnight Moon cheese from the Oxbow Cheese Merchant.

We finally arrived in St. Helena a little after 5pm. The property at Meadowood is gorgeous, and reminded me a bit of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. All of the staff were really nice and we were directed to a parking area, and then up a small brick path.

When we arrived at the door to the restaurant, we found it locked. It was 5:15pm, and our reservation was for 5:30pm, so granted they didn't technically have to be open for us yet, but still I found it strange. Anyway, we walked around for a few minutes looking around the property, so we were pretty cold when we finally entered the restaurant just before 5:30pm. The maitre d' offered to take my coat, and I told him I'd keep it as I was still warming up, but he insisted the dining room was very warm, so I let him take it. He was right about the temperature in the dining room, but later on when I had to use the restroom I discovered it was outside, so I was pretty cold getting there and back.

After we entered the (cozy, intimate) dining room, we were seated at a nice window table and our server (really nice, a little too chatty) was soon over with our menus. Meadowood offers two options: an eight-course prix fixe, and a four-course menu where each person gets to pick four dishes of his/her choice. We discussed it for awhile, eventually the "soy-cured foie gras", the lobster, and the duck swayed us towards the tasting menu.


Before the menu began, we were served several substantial amuse bouches. The first one was a "crudite pillow" filled with liquid fromage:


Next was my favorite, a hominy and pork fritter with powdered sour cream.


This dish was served simultaneously; it consisted of flash frozen vegetables with lettuce creme fraiche and garlic vinaigrette snow. I was surprised by the use of several molecular gastronomy-style techniques throughout the meal.


Finally, we were brought a persimmon-flavored mousse with citrus peel, eel bacon, and some other garnishes. I am not a huge fan of persimmon but this dish was well-executed and I did enjoy it.


Then it was on to the menu itself. The first course was the soy-cured foie gras (wrapped), with what tasted like marinated giant clam on the side. I enjoyed it, but D prefers foie gras served whole, instead of as a terrine, so I think he was a bit disappointed.


This was described as a garden potage with roasted grains, matsutake mushroom, and whipped bacon. It was pretty yummy although the whipped bacon was a little overwhelming, but not especially interesting, flavor-wise.


I liked the creativity of the next dish, which our server described as "deconstructed dim-sum". The white part was langostine in a rice flour wrapper. Underneath was pork belly with honshimeji mushrooms, and there were scallops on the side. The langostine was yummy if a bit salty, but the pork was not that great; tougher than I expected.


The "charmoula rubbed duck" was served with celery leaf, rhubarb, and mustard. Again I thought it was a bit saltier than I would have liked, but I did enjoy the tartness of the rhubarb and mustard seeds.


This dish was entitled "black and white" and contained sweetbreads, served with black truffle, black trumpet mushrooms, and parsnips. The sweetbreads were tender but again salty, but I liked the mushrooms very much.


I thought the presentation of this cheese dish was very cute. It was pecornio with bits of pear and macadamia nut brittle, served with a nutty bread and some spiced chips.



The palate cleanser was quite interesting; it was made of rye and geranium mead, with green apple gel underneath. The taste wasn't very strong but I guess that was the point.


The dessert was called "impressions of coffee" and again the presentation was nice, but at this point I was starting to get tired of the deconstructed look. Also, although tasty, almost everything on the plate tasted pretty much the same; like coffee, just with different textures.


At this point D and I were discussing our impressions and we had concluded that the food did not quite live up to its three-star billing. Then, the server arrived with this presentation of mignardises:


She described the treats as: almond financier brushed with mushroom and fennel powder, goat cheese puff, campari gelee, chocolate fudge, and marshmallow with fruit jam. They were sitting on top of a (non-edible) piece of real moss. This left a really good final impression on us, but we still concluded that while worth the visit, we probably would not return again, given the price and the distance we had to drive to get there. I do wonder if we had gone before the third star was awarded, if our expectations would have been lower and if we would have had a difference experience.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Baker & Banker

I'd had Baker & Banker on my restaurants list for awhile, so when my friend said she wanted to go, I told her to pick a date and I'd be there. We went on a rainy Friday; I'd booked an 8pm reservation because I knew traffic would be crazy, and we left my house at 7pm, but we still barely made it after spending 25 minutes between the Cesar Chavez and Bay Bridge exits.

The restaurant was cute but dark, so my photos are pretty bad. I'll include them anyway for the sake of illustration. We were a party of three, so we were given a nice corner booth.

The prix fixe was 65, which was an okay deal for four courses, but the wine pairing was only 35, which seemed like a good deal, so we decided to go for it. (Starters were 10-15, entrees were 20-30, and desserts were 8.)

First up was an amuse bouche which looked like a tiny cream puff, but was filled with something cheesy, with a savory/salty sauce. I've forgotten exactly what it was but it was tasty.


The first starter was a duck confit with a delicious coleslaw-like salad, topped with hazelnuts and apple cider vinaigrette. I think this was my favorite dish; the confit wasn't too salty, nor the vinaigrette too sour, and overall it tasted way better and more interesting than it sounded, so it was a pleasant surprise.


Next was a shellfish risotto, topped with fried shallots and cilantro oil. I liked this too; the seafood flavor was quite strong and there were nice juicy bits of shellfish in the risotto. I couldn't really tell that there was cilantro in it, though.


The entree was a wagyu beef with oxtail croutons. The croutons were clever, and overall I enjoyed the dish, but I felt that it was the least creative of the three savory dishes, although well-executed.


At this point we were served a generous portion of passionfruit sorbet. Not much to say, it cleansed the palate.


The dessert was described as a "vanilla cheesecake" which did not sound interesting at all, so I was surprised that it came liberally topped with caramel sauce, with a thick layer of crumbly cake underneath:

It was better than what I'd been expecting, but I liked the savory dishes more.

Overall we had a very pleasant evening; the food was yummy, service was good, the wine pours were generous (almost too generous!), and we were excited to spot both Lori Baker and Jeffrey Banker circling the dining room interacting with diners. I'd recommend a visit.

 

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