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.

Home

Home is where the cat is.






















Coming soon! Southern Cal & Ft. Collins, Colorado!

Wild Kingdom, indeed.

Omaha, Nebraska.

Home of Marlin Perkins, the Orpheum Theater, and a pretty cool zoo.

































We play, of course, at the Orpheum (though some might argue we are more suited for the zoo):





































We wrap up our tour with one last concert. It goes remarkably well.

We also enjoy the restaurants and shops in Omaha's quaint Old Market neighborhood. Lots of steaks here. Moo.


















It's been fun & all, but after nearly two months of running around the country, we are ready to GO HOME.

Tour Makes You Stupid

We were planning on going to Gombei this Sunday, as soon as we land in SJ. We have been talking about this for weeks.

Yumi just reminded us that Gombei is closed on Sundays.

...

Driving. Again.

This time, from Toledo to Des Moines (on our way to Omaha).

We really wish we could've stopped in Iowa City. It's killing me that we're not stopping in Iowa City.

Oh - how was Toledo? It was fine. Pretty hall, nice crew, leftover adobo, yadda yadda.

We are still eating adobo.

A taste of home

And on the 52nd day, we found a Trader Joe's.


.

Still drivin'

Drive, drive, drive...



Last night, Little Rock.

Tonight, Illinois.

Tomorrow, Ohio.







This portion of the trip brought to you by Franco's mom's fine home-cookin'. She packed two coolers full of leftovers for us.



Because we were just wasting away.




This makes for excellent road snacks.












I don't remember what these rolls are called, but they're like brioche but with less eggs & more butter.






This giant lemon (from Franco's dad's tree) isn't as much a road snack as it is a roadside attraction, much like the World of Pigeons or the World's Largest Ball of Twine.



Everything is bigger in Texas.

And we're not the only ones who eat like this.



.

On the road, AGAIN

Driving from Austin to Toledo...

Our Lady of Whole Foods

Austin is known for its busy live music scene, the university, their proudly independent bookstores/cafes/restaurants, and...



... Austin is also the corporate home of Whole Foods Market!












80,000 square feet of Whole Foods goodness!














Bakeries!












Prepared foods! Indian! Japanese! Korean! American!

Three soup stations serving two dozen different kinds of soup!

A gelato bar! A panini bar! Smoothies! Udon! Satay! Coffee! BBQ! Handmade chocolate truffles! Cooking classes!

And a raw food bar!!! In Texas!!!

This store makes the one in Campbell look like a 7-11.





Pretty bread!













Pretty, pretty pastries!!!


I could live here. And by here, I mean in this store.








And did I mention that this store, this cathedral of beautiful food, is across the street from REI, Anthropologie, and an indy bookstore?

I LOVE Austin.



.

Rhythm & Soul (food)

So what is PASIC, you ask?

PASIC is an annual convention for professional percussionists of all musical genres. It lasts four days and is jam-packed with seminars, lectures, demos, concerts, showcases, and a gi-normous room filled with vendors selling thousands of toys.





It is noisy here.













Steel drums! Bass ones!












There are recognizable instruments...











...as well as weird, new things...


















...and some old favorites.

The San Josers will get to play with these next week!








We are surrounded by many legendary, world-famous percussionists. And I've never heard of any of them.

Yurika & I watch parts of a competition (marching, small-ensemble), a concert (a high school percussion ensemble - pretty rockin'), and a maracas lec-dem, which features about a dozen different kinds of maracas, some filled with dried frog eggs. The audience is rapt. But to my uneducated ear, they all sound the same. Hm.

Anyway, we play a 50-minute showcase for about a thousand percussionists.

Since every single one of these people could probably kick our bottoms, chops-wise, we concentrate on ki. And by that, I mean that we girls smile a lot, since the audience is mostly made up of (according to stereotype) straight guys. They seem to like the show.


Onto dinner!

We go to Hoover's with Michael & Theresa Holden!

Hoover's is in an unpretentious strip mall, marked only with a smallish, modest sign. But when you walk inside, the walls are covered with reviews and articles.

A good omen.

So what do you get at Hoover's? Down-home Southern coookin'. And the world's best chicken-fried steak.






















And pretty friggin'-awesome chicken-fried chicken.


















And did I mention the smoked hot wings?

We got these in honor of Adam.


















And the fried okra! And the butterbeans! Mac & cheese! Sweet potatoes! Stewed okra! Garlic new potatoes! Mashed potatoes!






















And the blackberry cobbler!










Burp...


And to top it all off, we are staying at the uber-posh Austin Hilton.

Life is good.

The People's Republic of Austin

It's a blue day in a red state.

We are here in Austin to play a showcase at the PASIC conference.

On the way, we stop for lunch at Rudy's BBQ.

This is a no-frills bbq throw-down. You order your food by the pound, which is placed on butcher paper and garnished with half a loaf of white bread.





While waiting in line, you can watch your brisket being sliced on the Cutter Cam.








As usual, our eyes are too big for even our stomachs, so we order way too much food:

Spicy beef, brisket, sausages, half a chicken, ribs, beans, creamed corn, cole slaw, potato salad, with onions, pickles, and extra "sause."























This is one of Franco's favorite BBQ places.

He gets a little teary.








So how was it, you ask? Totally solid. Their "sause" is packed with cracked black peppercorns and has the perfect balance of sweetness, saltiness, and spiciness. Their brisket is Texas-style, covered in about a half-inch thick layer of rub and smoked until it's completely black. Hoo-yeah.

Moving on to dinner at...




Chuy's!













With Archie (Franco's brother), Carol, Josh, Luke, & Jakey!










Chuy's is an Austin Tex-Mex institution. The decorative theme: Elvis. Why? Because when the restaurant opened in 1982, the owners only had $20 to decorate the place. And what did they get with their $20? A velvet painting of Elvis.

This is also where the Bush twins (or was it just one twin?) got busted for underage drinking.











I get a chicken enchilada in tomatillo sauce & a chicken tostada-ish thing (it's under the lettuce).










Yurika gets the veggie enchiladas, made with blue corn tortillas.

It's a lot of food. But it's good. So we both manage to clean our plates.













On a completely unrelated note, Yurika says her pants are getting tighter. Mine, too.

Hm.