eek

I realized something yesterday...this year is the "Year of the Ox", which means my baby brother is turning 24 this year. Damn I'm old.

Wakuriya

Last week I finally went to Wakuriya, a Japanese restaurant about two miles from my house.

The menu is pretty simple; there's an eight-course kaiseki, and there's a six-course subset. Of course, I opted for the full eight courses. There was no way I was going to remember everything, so I took a photo of the menu:


Everything was good, and I enjoyed the meal very much, but I don't feel like going course-by-course so I'm just going to highlight a few:

- The appetizer course was nicely plated, and I liked the hotate salad and the kurobuta pork very much. The celery root and mushroom salad was too mayonnaise-y and I'm not a fan of unagi so I redistributed the rolls.


- I really liked the sake gelee. It was very simple but very tasty. At first I thought the serving was pretty big for what I thought was a glorified palate cleanser, but in the end I was happy to eat it all.


- The snow crab donburi was very good, and I suspect I would have liked it even more if I liked the taste of egg yolk. The chunks of crab were hearty and fresh and delicious.


- Surprise, surprise, I liked the dessert. Actually I wasn't that excited reading the menu, because as much as I like green tea, I'm getting a little bit tired of it. And, honestly speaking, the green tea mousse part wasn't all that exciting, but the black sugar sauce was really interesting and yummy, and the strawberry mochi was creative and well-executed, as well.


The service was excellent; really attentive and the server was constantly asking if everything was good and if we were enjoying it. It was almost a little too attentive; I sometimes feel guilty when I feel like people are waiting on me too much. Also, everyone else in the (tiny, four-table) restaurant was Japanese, and I was very amused by the extensive bowing scenes that took place whenever the Japanese customers finished their meals and departed the restaurant.

The waitress told us that the menu changes every month, so we should come back in February. I somehow doubt that I'll make it back so soon, especially given the price, but maybe later in the year, if the opportunity arises...

driving stick, take 4

Before Sunday, I'd attempted to drive stick three times before.

The first time, I was interning in California and a coworker volunteered to teach me. He had recently broken up with his girlfriend and she had chosen the make, model, and color (a pinky-purple shade) of his car, so understandably he was not too fond of it at that moment. I only managed to shift a few times in the company parking lot before getting frustrated and heading to lunch.

The second time, I was in Taipei, and I asked my parents to sign me up for driving school, figuring that since all driving classes in Taiwan are taught using stick shifts, it was a great way to learn. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my limited Chinese vocabulary did not include the words for "clutch", "accelerator", and other important terms, so the instructor thought I was retarded and overall the lesson went quite badly.

The third time, I was in France. We had a rental car which was a stick shift, and I figured I could pick it up as we went along. Unfortunately the people in the back seat got a little nervous about the idea after I accidentally got into reverse in the parking lot, and I was quickly relieved of driving duty.

On Sunday, I coerced a friend who recently inherited a new BMW into teaching me (and two other friends) on his old Jetta. Due to some combination of circumstances (maybe he was just a better teacher, or maybe the car was easier to drive, or maybe it was less pressure to have three people learning at once), we all managed to do respectably well. We drove around in circles on Oracle Parkway for nearly two hours, stopping at stop signs and shifting up and down gears, before yielding the driver's seat in order to head home (I live on a pretty big hill).

Anyway, I'm pretty psyched right now about the whole driving stick thing, but we'll see if it lasts.

feeling gleeful

About a year and a half ago I moved from an area with lots of high speed internet choices to an area with far fewer choices. Originally I had Speakeasy DSL which was awesome and amazing and recommended by me to everyone. After the move, I was stuck with Comcast cable internet, which made me very unhappy, because I hate Comcast with a passion. Not only do they have horrible and clueless phone support, they charge $50 every time a technician comes to visit, they have sketchy bait-and-switch pricing schemes, and one time when the Comcast guy came to "fix" our internet service he "accidentally" broke our satellite TV connection. Yeah, right.

Sometime last December, we received a letter from Comcast saying that the rate on our internet service ($42/month) was a "mistake" and that it would be changed to the "correct" price of $58/month, effective in January. The letter was printed, with color graphics. I sincerely doubt that we were the only customers to receive it. Anyway, it went on to say that we could elect to add cable TV service, and if we did so, instead of being charged $58/month for just internet, we would pay $52/month for both internet and TV. Of course, the catch was that the $52/month rate would only apply for a year.

That was motivation enough for me to start researching ISP alternatives again, and I was surprised and happy to find that AT&T DSL was available in our area. I promptly ordered AT&T service, and the technician enabled our line, but my old Speakeasy/Covad DSL modem unfortunately didn't work with AT&T's service, so I had to wait another few days until AT&T could send me a new modem (which, incidentally, was free with a 1-year contract).

The modem arrived yesterday afternoon, and after dinner and games with some friends, I started configuring the new connection around midnight. After going through the installation process (which unfortunately required a Windows machine and Internet Explorer, so I had to dig up a laptop), and debugging the PPPoE settings for a bit, I finally got everything working around 1am. This made me ridiculously happy. I felt like I was finally free! I didn't get to bed until 2am because I was aimlessly surfing the web, just reveling in our new faster, Comcast-less internet. Yeah, I'm a huge geek.

We got Comcast cancelled the next morning. Yay!! Take that, stupid Comcast policies!

changes

From my sister's chat status today:

"Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President..."
-- 2pac

I remember that being one of my favorite songs at some point. I guess it was a long time ago.

Here's to more changes, over the next four years, and beyond!

don't wanna grow up

There's been a outbreak of 1st birthday invites recently, and they are conspiring to make me feel old. Perhaps as a result, I had a particularly good time two weekends ago at a 30th birthday party which was designed to make us feel like kids again.

We started at LOL Parties, at Silver Creek Sportsplex in San Jose. I think between 20-30 people showed up to tackle an inflatable obstacle course, followed by a basketball game inside of a bouncy castle, and then several games of high-intensity dodgeball. My favorite was the basketball game, but all three events were fun and exhausting, and only a few people got noticeable plastic-burns. At this point I was pretty sweaty and gross, but managed to get into a Gold's Gym with a free one-day pass to shower and change. (As an aside, the guys at Gold's seem to be pretty lax about visitors, or maybe just with women.)

Next, we descended on Oakridge Mall to participate in a scavenger hunt. It was quite impressively organized, with each team getting matching sunglasses, play-doh (to build a doll representing the "birthday boy"), and a list of clues indicating certain photos/videos which we were supposed to acquire. After being mistaken for teenagers by one saleslady (woo-hoo!) and nearly being thrown out of Macy's by security (boo!), we wrapped up the hunt and headed over to Buca di Beppo's for dinner. That turned out to be an excellent choice as we were all starving, and managed to finish nearly of the food, which is pretty much unheard of at Buca's. We also had cake and prizes, and generally had a great time all around. Yay for 30th birthdays!

runs in the family

As you may have noticed by now, I am slightly obsessive about food. Well, it runs in the family...we all appreciate good food and love to eat, and sometimes when we go out to dinner it's a bit of a scene with all the cameras at the table.

Anyway, on Saturday, my sister and I met up with two of our cousins (one local, one in town from NYC) at Foreign Cinema for brunch. We were tempted by the fresh oysters but decided to pass in favor of splitting two appetizers. The first was a house made "pop tart" with kumquat filling, dusted with powdered sugar (which for once I managed not to inhale). It was light and flaky and delicious, and easily split amongst the four of us. Next we had a beef carpaccio which had some kind of thin fried onions or potatoes on top. I think each of us could have eaten the whole plate, but we resisted. Finally, as my entree, I had the "baguette french toast". Normally I am not a big fan of egg-y breakfast food, but this french toast managed to be egg-y and yummy at the same time, and I ended up licking the plate clean.

After brunch we managed to shop all afternoon with only a coffee break, so we were pretty hungry by dinnertime. We met up with our aunt and uncle in Belmont and ate at a small Vietnamese place called Chez Saigon, on El Camino near Ralston. I had heard of it somewhere before, so although the Yelp reviews were mixed, we decided to give it a chance (partially because Red Lantern was crazy busy that night). We were very happy with that decision. I believe we ordered two appetizers, five main dishes, and two side dishes, and they were all good, but my favorites were the shaken beef, the lemon beef, the fried calamari appetizer, and the side of garlic noodles (of which we had two). Given its location (maybe a couple of miles from my house?) I think I'll definitely stop by again.

obsession of the week

Last night I had some people over to watch 海角七號 (aka Cape No. 7), a Taiwanese movie by new director Wei Te-Sheng.

The plot follows two tracks: The present day storyline involves a musician who failed to make it big in Taipei and is returning home to Hengchun (in southern Taiwan) to replace the local mailman. He is recruited into a local band formed specifically to serve as an opening act for a visiting Japanese singer, and eventually strikes up a relationship with the band's manager, a Japanese former model. At the same time, he discovers a packet of love letters which were written 60 years ago by a Japanese man to a Taiwanese woman, during the Japanese surrender of Taiwan to the KMT.

The movie came out in Taiwan last summer and promptly became the second-highest grossing movie there in history (behind Titanic). The DVD was released in December, just in time for me to buy it during my annual visit.

I must admit that my curiosity was piqued partially because the movie was banned in China due to its semi-positive depiction of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, but it also won several Golden Horse awards and has been submitted to the Academy Awards as Taiwan's entry for Best Foreign Film.

Anyway, a couple post-viewing comments follow.

Of the group that watched the movie yesterday, everyone understood Mandarin fairly well. Most understood Taiwanese, and a few understood bits of Japanese. The movie was subtitled (not too horribly) in English, but I felt like understanding Taiwanese definitely contributed to greater enjoyment of the movie. Sometimes the Taiwanese expressions were significantly more colorful than the English translations, and some local flavor was lost even between Taiwanese and Mandarin. The dialogue rang true to me; even when it was crass it was authentically so.

I liked that the movie demonstrated the fluent Japanese of the older generation in Taiwan. My own grandparents are a perfect example; they all have cute Japanese nicknames and when they are together with their brothers and sisters, they speak mixed Japanese and Taiwanese. Their Mandarin is passable but awkward. That's Taiwan.

I thought the music in the movie was good. I did some research and found that the main character Aga was played by an actual musician, and several of the other actors also had real musical backgrounds, including the Japanese singer Atari. During the movie, I realized I had actually heard the last song already, while at karaoke in Taipei with my cousins, and I had liked it then too. I enjoyed the other (more upbeat) piece as well.

The movie was funny, but not in a slapstick way, and the characters were engaging. The 80-year old retired mailman was hilarious, and Aga's stepfather was also amusing (although he reminded me of some of my own annoying relatives, so sometimes it was harder to laugh). Often, modern Taiwanese movies take themselves too seriously, and this one did not.

My biggest complaint was that the backstory involving the love letters wasn't well developed and I wasn't sympathetic to the writer of those letters. I also disliked the cheesy music that played whenever the letters were read. The relationship between Aga and the Japanese manager Tomoko kind of came out of nowhere as well, but the two actors did a pretty good job of selling it towards the end, so that particular flaw wasn't as distracting.

The nicest surprise was the cinematography. Parts of Taiwan are really gorgeous but I never get to see them because I'm always in Taipei. Watching this movie made me want to make an effort to explore other parts of the island (while not being dragged there by my parents). I'm hoping that motivating effect lasts until next year.

real journalism

Yesterday I clicked on a link in a friend's chat status, and found an unexpectedly thought-provoking article. It was written by Lasantha Wickramatunge, a leading Sri Lankan journalist, predicting his own death. Three days later, he was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen.

In reading his article and reading about his life, I was reminded of how important good journalism is, in establishing and maintaining a free society. TIME reports that "His death has galvanized the growing anger among the press and other civil-society groups in Sri Lanka about restrictions on free expression in the country and intimidation of the media." I hope they are correct.

And, I hope that similarly courageous and talented journalists exist in Taiwan. They are sorely (and increasingly) needed, to keep the government in check during these tumultuous times.

still need more sleep?

I was kinda tired after a nice dinner with friends on Friday night (at The Village Pub in Woodside; yummy crab salad and duck breast, decidedly mediocre dessert), so I went to sleep around 12:30am. On Saturday morning, I was woken up at 11:30am and told that I was about to be late for a birthday party. That caused a bit of scrambling on my part, but I managed to get out the door quickly and everything worked out in the end.

So yeah...every so often I forget to set my alarm clock and then I realize I really, really do need it. Sigh.

too late!

Speaking of Taiwan, while visiting Yeh-Liu last week, I came across this sign which I found amusing:


It's very Asian of the stick figure to have already fallen off the edge.

sea kittens and other meats

I wonder if PETA has considered that its campaign to rebrand fish as sea kittens might make fish-lovers more likely to try eating kittens? I myself do not like fish, unless it is good and raw. (I guess PETA could be suggesting that raw kitten would be delicious?)

Last week, however, I did have the opportunity to try some horse at a sushi restaurant in Taipei:


That's two pieces of raw horse over rice, over there on the right. Unfortunately, it turns out that I am not a fan. I can eat raw beef by the pound, and I liked raw venison the one time I had it, but I found the horse meat sour, although it was more tender than I had expected. Oh well, now I know.

magical mystery fruit

At lunch today, a friend was talking about a "mystery fruit" she had tried over the holidays. Supposedly it makes other things (consumed up to 30 minutes afterwards) which are normally sour, taste sweet.

When I went back to my desk I looked for more information and found that ThinkGeek is selling them in pill form. I'm tempted to buy a box to try, but I actually really like sour food (mmm...raw lemon) so I'm not sure I would even enjoy the effect. Hmm...

Taiwan drivers

I just got back Sunday night from 10 days in Taiwan. I spent the whole time living with my parents at our place in Taipei, which annoyed me beyond belief, but it was still a good time; hung out with cousins and other relatives, went on a couple of excursions outside the city, and ate *tons* of yummy food.

I was amused by the following exchange which took place on the day before I left:
me (sarcastically): Mom! You stopped for a red light!
Mom (dead serious, paraphrased from Chinese): I have to practice. I'm going back to the US in a week and I'll forget if I don't.

good things about the holidays

(For this post, I will refrain from extended ranting about crazy shopping crowds, screaming out-of-control children, even-worse-than-usual air travel, fanatically and scarily cheery people, horrible cheesy music, commercialism aka holiday creep, and more. Observe.)

I'm not a big fan of tradition generally, but as I was sitting here this morning digesting the rest of Christmas dinner and reading more holiday email, I realized I do like some things about the holidays.

I like that people send out holiday cards, emails, newsletters, and other greetings, and I get to catch up on what everyone's been up to recently. Every year, I rediscover that my friends and family are fascinating people with wide-ranging and diverse interests. Sometimes I'm a teeny bit jealous of all the adventures that people are having, but that's also good, as it reminds me to re-examine and figure out how to execute on my own plans.

I like (most) holiday gatherings, or at least those with good food and good company. I like being in one place (geographically) with lots of family, and staying up at night being silly with my cousins. I love Christmas cookies and other holiday desserts, and the process of making them, with lots of people together creating chaos in the kitchen.

I guess I just like that people make an extra effort for the holidays, and that it shows.

price of motherhood

There are a billion trillion articles these days about women attempting to juggle careers and families, and most of them are depressing.

I read this one for the first time about three years ago. It discusses a study that claims "...a woman in her 20s will increase her lifetime earnings by 10 percent if she delays the birth of her first child by a year...for college-educated women, the effects are even bigger. For professional women, the effects are bigger yet."

So, women who have children in their 20s not only end up spending lots of money on child-related expenses (and lose compounded interest on that money), they also have reduced income for the rest of their professional lives. On the bright side, there is a much smaller effect for women in their 30s. Yay for procrastination!

coconut cream pie

I got this recipe from one of the cooks at our villa in Jamaica. Her rendition was delicious; not too sweet, with a nice crumbly crust.

Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:
1. Combine butter, flour, a bit of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.
2. Knead the mixture and add milk until the crust comes together.
3. Continue kneading until soft.
4. Bake about 10 minutes, then cool.

Filling:
1. Take 1 whole dried coconut, cut it open, and shave the coconut flesh.
2. Combine with 1 cup of milk, a bit of vanilla extract, a bit of almond extract, a pinch of salt, and sugar to taste.
3. Cook on stove with cornstarch to thicken (about 1/4 cup).
4. After about 15 minutes, add the filling to the crust and put in freezer to set.

Serve with whipped cream spread across the top.

second annual Puerto Rico tournament

After finally getting home from Jamaica last Sunday, I took a shower, picked up some cupcakes, and headed over to a friend's house, for our second annual Puerto Rico tournament!

I unfortunately missed out on last year's event because I was out of town, so I was determined to make this one, jetlag be damned. There were 12 participants, so the preliminary round consisted of four games with three players each, and then the final round had three games with four players each, with the four winners of the first round playing against each other, etc.

I won my first game with my standard small market + harbor strategy, using coffee as my cash crop. Luckily both the other two players chose tobacco, so I was able to cash in throughout the game, and ended up buying two large buildings.

The second round was interesting; although I managed to secure both a harbor and a wharf, I seemed to be unable to gain ground on the leader by shipping often during the endgame. He had a wharf of his own, plus a small warehouse, and used some interesting tactics to make shipping less productive for me; he chose the captain before anyone had crafted, chose the craftsman twice in a row, etc. In the end, he beat me by two points for the championship. It was certainly an interesting game, though! I'm looking forward to next year's tournament already.

notes from Jamaica

Last week I went to Jamaica for a destination wedding. The wedding was on Monday, but we arrived on Saturday afternoon and stayed the week, until the following Saturday.

Assorted travel and other notes...

It was 85 degrees pretty much the whole week, and a bit humid (although not as bad as Taiwan), so I actually preferred to stay indoors between 1-3pm. The mornings and the late afternoons were very pleasant. It was a bit of a shock to come back to the Bay Area to find 40 degree weather and heavy rain!

Air travel is getting worse and worse. On the way there, one group of friends were rerouted through Las Vegas, making their itinerary a two-stop rather than a one-stop. The first leg left about 3 hours earlier than the original flight. Another friend was rerouted through Chicago, also resulting in a two-stop itinerary. She lost her luggage during the 50 minute connection due to the inbound flight being 20 minutes late. The couple we were travelling with lost their stroller in Houston, along with two other couples with small children.

On the way back, our original flight schedule gave us a 1.5 hour connection in Houston. The airline rebooked us with a 50 minute connection. Our first flight actually landed on time, but after we waited 20 minutes for the gate to become free, we missed our flight. When rebooking to the next flight, although two of us were on the same itinerary, one person got a seat on the flight and the other did not. When we got to the gate we realized the same thing had happened for two other groups.

Here's the entertaining part: The standby list was ordered so that there was one woman in front of me. Her travel companion also had a seat on the flight. At boarding time it was determined that there were no extra seats, so the travel agent asked her travel companion if he would fly alone. He refused, so by rule the seat would fall to his travel companion. Except, we had just established that they would not travel separately, so theoretically the seat should fall to me. Unfortunately the travel agent also decided to ask my travel companion if he would travel alone. If he had answered "yes", then (counterintuitively) the seat would have gone to me. He answered "no", whereupon the travel agent gave his seat to the other woman, as she was higher than me on the standby list. It was classic game theory in action, yet we failed to realize it in time to take advantage! Actually, I had all the data and did figure out the right answer in time, but I hesitated too long, since the question was not directed at me. In the end, we were able to meet up with some relatives in Houston for a few hours, so it wasn't all bad. Anyway, it was an interesting episode.

On one of the last days in Jamaica, a group of us booked a private tour to Ocho Rios and the Dunn's River Falls. The falls themselves were super fun; we basically hiked up the waterfall from the beach to the source, led by a guide. It looked a bit scary at first but was really not dangerous at all and made for some great photos.

On the way to the falls we stopped by a souvenir shop where we saw the following box of cigarettes, which amused us very much:


It's probably much more effective than the American version that just warns against cancer!

Other than that, it was a pretty chill trip; we spent some time on the beach, some time by the pool, some time playing tennis, and lots of time playing board games. The villa that we stayed in came with several housekeepers and cooks, and it was interesting planning out our meals and shopping at the local fish markets so that we could experience lots of authentic Jamaican food. In the end we were able to sample jerk chicken, BBQ chicken, jerk pork, oxtail, curried goat, fresh fish "escovitch" (with onions and vinegar sauce), fresh lobster, conch fritters, pumpkin soup, plantains, beef and chicken "patties", coco bread, and more. The chefs did a really good job with all of our requests, and even made dessert every night, so we had several key lime pies, rum cake, and even a coconut cream pie.

Overall, it was nice to spend a relaxing week hanging out with close friends. I'm thinking of choosing a more eventful itinerary for my next vacation, though. Machu Picchu, here I come!

more food blogging, with photos this time

Wow, it's been nearly a month and a half since I went to these restaurants! Time flies...

My sister loves Japanese food and is a huge carnivore. When we were teenagers, she and I, along with two of our (girl) cousins, out ate my brother and three of our (guy) cousins (also teenagers), at a Korean BBQ buffet. We do love that kalbi and bulgogi.

Anyway, I digress. Since my sister was in town for a couple of months, I seized the opportunity to take her to Alexander's Steakhouse, which I knew she would enjoy. I made an effort to order all new appetizers, but stuck to the dry-aged New York steak for my entree.

Photos and comments follow:

The amuse was a steak tartare. It was deliciously seasoned, and I'm a sucker for raw meat, so I liked it very much.



We ordered two appetizers: "popcorn" lobster, and a rack of lamb. The lamb were yummy, but my favorite was the lobster. The chunks of lobster were generous and it didn't feel greasy at all. I went pretty easy on the aioli sauce, though.





The New York steak came with fried (almost tempura) veggies on top, which I liked very much. The steak was as flavorful and tender as I remembered, and of course I had to order the truffled fries again. Those fries must have crack in them; I can never stop eating them until they're gone, and then I want more.



I also had a bite of the porterhouse which someone else at the table had ordered, which came with a giant scoop of some kind of flavored butter, but I still liked my steak the best.

We ordered two desserts for the table: apple empanadas and pear tart with "raspberry Zinfandel sorbet". I liked the presentation of both desserts, and the apple dish was fine, but what I really loved was the raspberry Zin sorbet. It almost tasted fizzy, if that makes any sense at all; really unique and delicious. The gelee cubes were fine but I think I'm getting tired of fruit gelee.





Anyway my sister did like Alexander's very much, as I predicted, so I'm glad we made the time to go there. Now I just have to wait for my cousin to come back from New York so we can go again. She's an even bigger carnivore than my sister...

About a week afterwards, I went to Postrio for the first time, to celebrate a friend's birthday. When we walked into the restaurant it was pretty empty, which worried me a bit. But, I guess we had an early reservation (6:30pm), even for a Sunday night, because by 7:30pm it had totally filled up.

After looking at the menu (for only a very short time), the four of us chose to have the tasting menu for the table, which turned out to be a good choice, as there was a lot of variety and a good amount of food.

The amuse was a very generously portioned mushroom soup. It was nearly as big as a cup. It was well-executed and all, but not all that interesting.

The first course was "tuna two ways": tuna tartare wrapped in tuna tataki. The tartare was oily, almost like poke, and the tataki was seared lightly enough that I didn't mind that it had been cooked, which is really saying something. It was served on a smudge of nori (seaweed) sauce. I *love* nori; I'll eat a whole can of it in an hour, while watching TV. Anyway, the tuna was creative, attractively plated, and hit several of my favorite flavors, making it easily my favorite dish of the evening.



Next up was a lobster risotto. I've had some really good risottos before, as well as some great paellas, and this one just wasn't quite up there, as far as texture. It had good flavor, but too soupy (although I think that was on purpose), and the rice wasn't as soft as I would have liked. The lobster itself was fresh and tender.



The next course was supposed to be snapper, and everyone else did have the snapper, except me. I can't comment on the taste myself but people seemed to enjoy it.



As usual I asked for a substitution for any cooked fish dishes, which was a good thing because I ended up with venision, which was *delicious*. Of the three meat dishes, I most preferred the venision; it wasn't gamey but did have a nice subtle extra flavor to it that neither the beef nor the duck had. It was prepared medium rare (almost rare) and was extremely tender, and the sauce was a great accompaniment; strongly flavored but not overwhelming. My only complaint was that the little cubes decorating the sides of the plate were unremarkable, taste-wise.



After the venison came the duck, which was served with some berries, a pearl onion, and polenta. I am not a fan of polenta so I didn't eat much of it, but it was pretty good as far as polenta is concerned. The duck itself was yummy but not as tender as the venison.



The next dish offered a choice of Kobe beef (with a supplement) or venison. Since I had chosen the beef, the chef had cleverly given me the venison in place of the snapper, so at this point I had the beef and everyone else had the venison. I shared bits of the beef with everyone else so they could try it, and it was quite tasty, but amazingly, I still preferred the venison. I was probably also a bit biased because the accompanying radish was too creamy for my tastes. The green beans were excellent, though.



At this point we were served a "cheese plate". I guess when I hear "cheese plate" I expect to have more than one type of cheese, because I was a bit disappointed with this particular course. The cheese itself was fine, but didn't really stand out, and the preparation of the apricot (something about drying and rehydrating with some other liquid, I believe) sounded a lot more impressive than it tasted.



Luckily, we were soon onto dessert, which was a "whisky chocolate cake" topped with "Bailey's ice cream", accompanied by hazelnuts and caramel sauce. I was happy with basically every word in that description, and I was not disappointed; both the whisky and Bailey's flavors were very much present but went quite well with the chocolate and caramel. I especially liked the texture of the crumbly bottom part of the cake together with the almost mousse-like chocolate-y part.



They should have stopped there. Unfortunately, they then brought out a plate of biscotti and brownies, neither of which were particularly impressive.



I had a bite of each and decided that was enough. I was quite full, anyway.

Overall, I thought the restaurant was worth a visit, but at least for me, the courses were a bit uneven. I was very impressed with dishes like the tuna and the venison, and much less impressed with the risotto and the cheese plate. I'm glad that the dessert was good, though, as we left on a pretty high note. It was a nice time, anyway.