My first trip to Hawaii (Part I)

Kauai!



Gorgeous, eh?














Jurassic Park was filmed here.

You can almost see the dinosaurs.




We (Wis, Franco, Roy, Yumi, Michelle, Toru, & I) rented a lovely 4-bedroom house on the southern side of Kauai. It was next to a golf course and was surrounded by chickens...








...and very close to Poipu Beach!











The beaches on Kauai remind me of Okinawa, which is about as high a compliment as I can come up with. Okinawa was my first beach experience. After that came Long Island Sound (cold, gray, awful), then New England (moderately pretty but freezing), San Francisco (pretty, but freezing and shark-infested), San Diego (warm but lots of Tijuana sewage), and Florida (warm but lots of tourists and giant mice).

Kauai's beaches had perfect sand, and the water was BLUE, the way it's supposed to be.


Yumz, Franco, Stew, Wendy, & Gabe bravely decide to try surfing.














The rest of us stay behind to document the carnage.


















This is Sparky, the surfing instructor.















Yumi said he was a good teacher.

But Stew looks confused here.











Franco, however, is a natural.

On land, at least.















So here they go...
















...and here they are, afterwards.

No one died! I call that a success.















We were all impressed.













Onto the snacks...



Koloa Fish Market!

A tiny deli-type place that serves plate lunches.

We all get our food and go back to out house.









I get the ahi with wasabi cream sauce and pork & gravy.

Served, of course, with mac salad and two scoops of rice.





The ahi is fabulous, but the pork's not as salty or as good as Wisa's mom would make.


Look at this giant piece of fat.

Hey, fat is where the flavor is. This is why all the food here tastes so good.

(I didn't eat that piece, though. Ugh.)




































































































Lappert's Ice Cream!















Awesome Kona coffee ice cream...














...and guava sorbet.

Happy Easter!

I am the world's worst blogger.

I have posts from February that I have yet to post.

Sigh.

In the meantime... Happy Easter!










No one decorates eggs like the Buddhists.

Back online!

Thanks to Pear, who works at Apple, I have a brand-new MacBook!



Yes, that's her name, and yes, that's where she works.

Colorado & So Cal posts will be up soon...

Tales from Korea Kitchen...

... or Our Eyes Are Bigger Than Our Even Our Stomachs


So here we are in Lancaster, CA, population 134,000. Located at the edge of the desert, near Edwards AFB.

There's not much here.

So we're happy to find Korea Kitchen in a nearby mall.



As usual, we are starving, so we order apps. This is a fried tofu assortment. Each bundle of tofu is covered in something different: panko, croutons, or cornflakes.

Not sure what part of that is Korean, but it's yummy.



As most of you probably know, it's kind of redundant to order appetizers at a Korean place, since you already get a million little extra dishes of snacks, anyway. But being hungry makes us forgetful.

Ten minutes later, our table looks like this:



Oh, my.

That might be too much food, even for us.









And there's no way I'm not going to finish my Bi Bim Bop.

I could eat this every day.

Now, I would never make this at home. There's way too much prep time involved. A certain magazine is working on this recipe for one of their cookbooks... glad I'm not developing the recipe.



PJ asks Franco to finish her entree.

Franco is a good sport. With two hollow legs. But he's sorry he had that appetizer.





Will we ever learn?

Probably not.

Colorado Wrap-up

A summary of our Colorado snacks -

Not a whole lot of Asians here in Fort Collins, so we weren't really looking to have the Food of Our People, especially when we saw the "Japanese" restaurant with its dollar sushi specials.

But we spotted a small, mom-and-pop Thai place near the Colorado State U campus that looked promising. Since Thai food is usually pretty safe, even in the flyover states, we decided to give this place a try.






The daily lunch special comes with pad thai, a spring roll, rice, and of course, the special. Thursday's was chicken & ginger. It's a lot of food for not much $, and it was all really tasty. Nothing inventive or innovative here - just good, solid eats.




Charco Broiler steak house.

Everyone at the theater said this is a local favorite. So of course we check it out.




This is an old-school steakhouse, where the decor is dark and minimal, the lettuce in the salad is iceberg, and most of the patrons are wearing cowboy hats, not because it's cute but because they actually work with cows.




We start with drinks...

Fat Tire! Brewed here in Fort Collins. Drink locally!



















I try the 2-Below Ale; it seems appropriate. And it's yummy. Hoppy with the teeniest amount of sweetness. It's a girly beer - but I like that.






Franco starts with the spinach & bacon salad.














Pam has the beef stew and sweet potato fries.










Since we're in cow country, most of us try some form of moo. PJ & Franco have the Charo Broiler version of prime rib, which is a big fat ribeye finished on the grill.











Yurika opts for the gigantic salmon salad. Once again, Veggie Girl gets the biggest dish.








I think I had sirloin tips with mushrooms (this is what happens when I don't take a photo of my own food). I think it was okay. Overall, the Charco Broiler had pretty good, middle-of-the-road steakhouse eats.






Lucille's Creole Cafe.








Lucille's is right across the street from the theater, housed in a - well, an actual house.

As soon as we sit down, I order their chicory coffee. It's dark but mellow, perfectly roasted, and empty cups are immediately refilled. On each table is a pot of Lucille's strawberry rhubarb jam, which is awesome - lots of strawberry flavor with the lemony rhubarb keeping the strawberries tasting bright & fresh.



This is my kind of place.



PJ gets the Cajun Breakfast - red beans & ham, poached eggs, hollandaise, grits, and a buttermilk biscuit the size of your head.

Rich, spicy, and salty. All good things.











I get the Giant Lobster Etouffee!









Actually, it's just crawfish etouffee. Made with dark roux, lots of crawdads, and just enough heat to make you sweat a little. Perfect for a cold day.

It was good, good, good.











Franco loves his biscuits & gravy, so he gets the Lucille's version - spicy sausage gravy, buttermilk biscuit, red beans, and grits.








Cajun/creole food is one of my favorite things, and Lucille's didn't let us down. This was one of the best lunches I've had in a long time. Hearty, rib-sticky, and just spicy enough to warm the tummy.



Which is a good thing, in this unreasonably cold weather.

Holy-frickin'-BRRRRR, part 2

Right Now for Fort Collins, CO
Sunny -7°F

Wind chill factor in Denver this morning: -40

Please don't make me go outside.

Holy-frickin'-BRRRRR

We are in Fort Collins, Colorado. It seriously smells like cows. But we're at the foot of the Rockies, and it's nice to see the mountains.

The weather? Tomorrow's high: 7 degrees! Tomorrow's low: minus 7! And snow, snow, snow!



Roadsnack highlights:



Coopersmith's Pub. Microbrews and typical pub fare.

I had the brisket with garlic mash. The brisket was okay, but the potatoes had been beaten to death - overstarchy and gluey. With no discernible garlic, to boot.

That is a really basic mistake. Don't overmash your taters, folks. It turns into wallpaper paste.




Verdict: It wasn't awful, but I'm not going back any time soon.











Avogadro's Number (yes, that is the name of this restaurant). Hippie sammies. Everything from uber-vegan tempeh to roast beef to ice cream. A little somethin' for everyone.

And no, I didn't pay attention in AP Chem class, so I have no idea what Avogadro's number actually is.




I had the falafel and green chili with pork.

The falafel was great (though not as good as Falfel Drive-In back home) - freshly fried, light, not greasy at all, and well-seasoned with lots of fresh parsley, all on a toasty roll.


The chili was okay. I think I have to stop getting green chili, because every time I order it, I'm disappointed. I try it every time I'm in this part of the country, and I have yet to taste one that's memorable. If anyone out there knows of a restaurant that has kick-ass green chili, let me know.


The others got banana milkshakes, roast beef sammies, turkey-and-bacon subs, fried zucchini, etc. Pam got the pastrami and said it was awesome.

Verdict: Good!









Culvers! A Midwestern chain, famous for its butterburgers, frozen custard, and their fabulous crazy-sour lemon freeze.

We discovered Culver's last summer in Iowa, and PJ & I have been craving their lemon freeze ever since.



But lemon freeze is no longer on the menu! Apparently, it's seasonal and is not offered in the winter.

Seasonal, my ass. Culver's obviously doesn't know that the lemon is a winter fruit.

And Yurika was looking forward to a non-dairy dessert.




Britt's happy with her peanut butter cup/M&M/Butterfinger custard.

Whatever. I wish I had a lemon freeze.

Verdict: Thhhpt.




PS - Avogadro's number = 6.0221415 × 10²³

What does that mean? Heck if I know.

Weather update

Tomorrow's high will not be 7 degrees. It will be 3 degrees.

That's a HIGH of THREE degrees.

Doggie bags are for amateurs

Pepperdine University!

Pepperdine's campus is perched on a steep hill in Malibu with a spectacular view of the beach. At least, that's what I hear. We arrived on campus before 6:00 this morning, and it was still dark out.

Load-in & cue-to-cue go smoothly, and we go to lunch at the Pepperdine cafeteria, which is quite nice. It had better be, considering the tuition here, oy.


Great salads, fresh fruit, and pretty much everything you wish your college cafeteria had.








There's a frozen yogurt machine here. Britt is happy.




















After lunch, we play our first concert of 2007! It goes pretty well, but it's been a while since we've done this, so we're a little more tired than usual.

Maybe some food will make us feel better...

Highlights from our dinner at La Paz, a Mexican seafood place in Calabasas:


Sope de albondigas! AKA meatball soup. We had a version of this in Culiacan, Mexico a few years ago, made outdoors in a giant tin tub over an open fire. It was good.

This one wasn't bad, either.








Donna and PJ split the seafood paella.

I give them points for dramatic presentaion. It's like a giant crab was killed by a pile of rice.







I opt for the chicken mole poblano.

Mole poblano is a sauce, usually made with cocoa powder and 20+ other ingredients. Does it taste like chocolate? Not so much. But it was smoky, nutty, and good.





Adam has one of La Paz's specialties: Bouillabaisse Caldo De Siette Mares (for you gringos, that's "Soup of the Seven Seas") - with shrimp, fish,octopus, abalone, crab, clams, and oysters.

It's the Monterey Bay Aquarium in a giant soup bowl.







He'd better get started before that crab crawls out of the bowl.










The food is all fabulous and the portions are huge. Most everyone gets doggie bags. Do I? Of course not. I finish mine.

It's been a long day, and we feel like this:












(I'd be the chubby one in the middle.)

Not everything is bigger in Texas

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Largest Whole Foods Market in US set for San Jose
If you think trans-fat is bad for you, take heart: Whole Foods Market, the nation's leading purveyor of healthy but typically pricier groceries, has launched a major expansion in Silicon Valley, including the construction of its largest store in the country.

This monument to the growing appeal of natural foods will measure 86,400 square feet... which would be 6,000 square feet larger than its flagship location in Austin, Texas...

Whoo hoo! Hee hee!

Pepperdine

Tomorrow, we leave chilly Northern Cal...











and head to sunny Malibu. And then to snowy Colorado.

Stay tuned for roadsnack reports!

Sigh

Going to Malibu in a few weeks to play a concert @ Pepperdine. Was looking forward to the warmer weather.

However, there is no warm weather to be had anywhere in California:

Snow falls in Malibu, first in 20 years

3:10PM Thursday January 18, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Snow fell briefly in normally sunny Malibu, and west Los Angeles saw hail today in the first sighting in 20 years of a white winter.

The mountains behind Malibu -- a celebrity enclave that hugs the Pacific Ocean -- got a dusting of snow that brought traffic chaos to a region where rainfall is usually headline local news.

Snow plows were sent out to clear a major road through the Malibu mountains and at least one car crashed, highway police said.

This is ridiculous.

It is warmer in my fridge.


Clear Low
27° F

Break out the thermals

Tonight's weather forecast:


Chance of Snow
27 degrees

Hmph. This is not why I moved to California.

Movie reviews

A quiet, interesting movie with adorable dogs. But is Tony Blair's house really that messy?

Verdict: Not bad.









Now, I'm willing to see almost any Matt Damon movie, but this was slow & not terribly believable. Not to mention way too long.

Verdict: Eh.








Unintentionally hilarious. The plastic surgery biz is, apparently, thriving in China. Chow Yun Fat is unrecognizable with all of that hair. And who designed these costumes? Liberace?

Verdict: Save your money.









See, we don't spend all of our time eating. Sometimes we watch movies while we eat.

Upcoming Events

January 28	Pepperdine University-Smothers Theatre Malibu, CA www.pepperdine.edu/arts
February 1 & 2	Lincoln Center Fort Collins, CO www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/lctix
February 16	Lancaster Performing Arts Center Lancaster, CA www.lpac.org

Tour Stats & Superlatives

Weight gained on tour: 5 lbs

Weight lost since tour: 7 lbs

Number of photos taken: 1,120+

Best snack: Cranberry sorbet from the Austin Whole Foods gelato bar & molasses cookie from King Arthur Flour bakery in Vermont.

Scariest snack: Fatback - now, with more skin attached!














Best city for snacks: Austin

City that exceeded my expectations: Omaha - great theater, decent restaurants, fabulous zoo. Not that I'm saying I'd ever want to live there.

Least impressive location: Ohio.



Most curious structure: the gallows on top of the Charlotte courthouse.













Most enthusiastic fan: the lizard from Union Elementary in North Carolina.












Food I never need to eat again: Chicken-fried steak (it doesn't get any better than the awesome one I had in Austin), Peterbrooke chocolates (I ate my weight in those things in Jacksonville), anything from a gas station, convenience store, or Cracker Barrel.

Most thoughtful gifts: Bridgewater chocolates from Jo & homemade brownie from Ron & Dan.